And that's interesting, because why didn't they use the opportunity to have Mary kill it on the chorus of "One Nite Stand," when she supposedly sang on the album version? I always said their was something sus about that supposed collaboration. But then it's over.Īfter that, Father MC introduces "the queen of soul, the ultimate Mecca queen, the Mecca of soul," Mary J Blige, who performs for another twenty-plus minutes. They break it down for the third verse, though, and the percussion sounds really dope and that's where this version finally clicks into something interesting. The horns sound nice (though no, they don't do the "Ruler's Back" bit) but the piano sounds clunky. Instrumentally, it's mostly just a watered down version of the studio mix, with more echoey mics and live guitar re-interpolating the funky bassline and "Microphone Fiend" riff. He improvises a little "just throw your hands in the air" and stuff, but that's about it. No verses from the 12" remix or anything. And lyrically, he just does it pretty straight. I've already written about "One Nite Stand" extensively here, so go ahead and refresh yourself. MC!"Īnd like I said, Father just gets the one 3-4 minute song. We had the pleasure of doing a song with him on his first album. Then they introduce, "another member of the family. Jodeci's up first and they do several songs for the first twenty or so minutes. So the album is just the live performance as aired in the special straight-through, no funky edits or anything.
Only a bunch of old rock fan executives would think we should be excited to not give DJ Eddie F the opportunity to get busy live on stage. As you can imagine, that meant little difference for some folksy-type artists, but for Hip-Hoppers, that meant no turntables, which is just the very core of Hip-Hop music, but oh well. If you don't know, the gimmick of the Unplugged specials is that they were all live with no electric instruments, so we could hear their "pure" talents or whatever. I only picked up a cheap used copy years later because I found out it had a bonus studio track tacked on at the end. In fact, I didn't buy the album version when it first came out because of that. But I was mostly just disappointed that it was like 90% R&B and 10% rap. I remember at the time Uptown making a big deal that this was the first time MTV made an Unplugged special for a label rather than a specific artist. The special aired on May 31st, and Father MC was featured performing one of his hits from his second album, "One Nite Stand." Or, as it was titled when Uptown released the album version on June 1st, "One Night Stand." But just before he could switch it up, like right before, Uptown Records needed him in his R&B lover mode one last time, for their big Uptown MTV Unplugged special. 1993 is the year Father MC dropped the MC from his name and switched up is image from a lover to a player with his third album, Sex Is Law.