Still Speeding

Spare a thought for disco songstress Loleatta Holloway. In 1980, she released a truly incredible piece of funk pop called ‘Love Sensation’, which deservedly, went straight to the top of the US dance charts. Nine years later, inexplicably thinking Holloway was dead, Italian DJ-turned-producer Daniele Davoli of Black Box used segments of the song to create ‘Ride On Time’, which went on to be the UK’s best-selling single of 1989. For the music video and appearances on Top Of The Pops and other TV shows, he used Catherine Quinol, a model from Guadeloupe, to lip-sync along to the distorted vocal. When Holloway passed away this year at the age of 64, it was the first time many music fans discovered the deception. I’m not saying that it’s up to Ghanian-British rapper Sway to preserve Loleatta’s memory, but sampling Black Box’s already sample-heavy track certainly doesn’t help matters. In fact, we only have to wait for Mr. Hudson to sample ‘Still Speeding’ and pop music officially becomes one giant, emotionless recursion. As for Sway, I don’t care if he’s the “Lewis Hamilton of rap” (actual lyric). In the Google age, a little originality goes a long way.