”Wild Thing,” a raunchy fusion of rap and scruffy guitar by the 22-year-old Los Angeles-based rapper Tony Smith-who goes by the name Tone Loc-is a commercial milestone for rap music.
Even in a shrinking market for pop singles, ”Wild Thing” has gone through the roof, with sales of more than 2 million in just eight weeks. That`s more than any single has sold since U.S.A. for Africa`s ”We Are the World” in 1985.
”Wild Thing” was released in four formats: 7-inch single, 12-inch single, cassette single and maxi-cassette (a cassette version of the 12-inch single). The fact that the maxi-cassette version has outsold the other formats by more than 2 to 1 attests to the growing importance of cassettes in the singles market.
Tone Loc`s hit is the first release for Delicious Vinyl, a small West Coast label distributed by Island Records` dance-music subsidiary, Fourth and Broadway Records. Now No. 2 on Billboard`s pop singles chart, ”Wild Thing,” which bears no relation to the Troggs` 1966 hit of the same name, is the most successful rap single since Run-DMC`s ”Walk This Way,” which peaked at No. 4 in 1986.
Tone Loc`s debut album, ”Loc`ed After Dark,” has sold a million copies.
