Deep Dope Soul Presents Vintage Heat Number One: Remembering John "ECSTACY" Fletcher of Whodini and The LP ESCAPE

 Vintage Heat Number One:  35 Years Of Escape By Whodini

Remembering John “Ecstasy” Fletcher
Words By Raymond Tyler

I purposely and thoughtfully refrained from writing about John “Ecstasy” Fletcher before now.

Like most, I prayed his passing was just another bad Covid dream.
I also wanted to take the time to get my thoughts in order.
I apologize now, because I know, I do not have the words to do his memory and what his music means to me and my generation justice….but I’m going to try.

35 years ago (more or less) I was listening to Power 99 on a jury-rigged set up in my bedroom.
In order to get FM radio stations from Philly to Va...myself and almost every hip hop head I knew in Atlantic City would attach a TV antenna to our radio to get static filled broadcasts from out of state. (In fact I am going to write about that whole situation another time)

I fell asleep but left my cassette on record and when I played the broadcast back the next day on my walkman headset?

A song came on called Five Minutes Of Funk by Whodini.
At that point everything changed.

First of all. 5 Minutes Of Funk was the first POST Grandmaster Melle Mel jam that made me want to be an MC! On my way to classes I was trying to remember the words and making up my own rhymes.

Then with the release of the LP Escape….Whodini brought hit after hit. Friends, Freaks Come Out At Night, Escape, Big Mouth.

I consider myself to have been a little early, on Whodini and considered Escape MY ALBUM.

The truth is for every kid that loved hip hop at Atlantic City High School….Escape belonged to us all. Well before hip hop artists were crossing over regularly...shoot before hip hop was embraced on Black radio...I had white classmates singing “Friends...how many of us have them?”

How special is Whodini to me even today? (I am not ready to start talking about the group in the past tense yet.) There is only one hip hop act I love to see live more than Doug E. Fresh (who actually right now is the greatest entertainer alive and top 5 all time.) Whodini is the group I enjoy seeing live more than Doug.

In fact my list of best/favorite concerts by living artists is Stevie Wonder, Sade, Gladys Knight, Whodini. (Yes I have seen Earth , Wind and Fire ...twice and they bring it.)

Paid Advertisement

1. I have seen Whodini about 5 times and I would see them every year if I could because they have never done the same show twice. The last time I saw them was in AC at a sneak attack performance and they killed as usual.

2. Their show gives you all the great elements of hip hop...great DJ, great dancing, and of course lyrics.

3. Their music remains the soundtrack to my youth. Not only that, their music holds up as well and sometimes better than their R & B counterparts.

In short Whodini created their own lane for hip hop, music and style.
We were still banging the Escape album when the buzz on the street came out about Whodini’s Back In Black Lp...and what they did to the streets with the release of Funky Beat? INCREDIBLE music and video.

As I see it….only Run DMC’s Peter Piper and Notorious B.I.G’s Hypnotize made a bigger buzz on the street before the albums actually dropped.

Paid Advertisement For www.Soul-Sanctuary.Net

                                                              

I only met John “Ecstasy” Fletcher one time, along with his twin brother.
I was trying to behave like a professional journalist and not a fan. Thinking back now...I would have let myself behave more excited if I had to do it again. I played it too cool...like he wasn’t a legend...like his music had not changed my life...like his influence was not coming out in my visual art and journalism.

So no I did not know him...but through Whodini, Ecstasy gave me more than I can ever really express. I guess I will remember most fondly; Whodini on stage and myself in the audience dancing and sharing some vibes with some outstandingly beautiful "honey's." I will reflect on being a teenager in my room and replaying Whodini songs till I could memorize them. I will remember being in my notebook and feeling Whodini inspire me. I will definitely remember playing Back In Black the day it came out. On that day my brother and I were amazed by the lyrics of Ecstasy on Fugitive and Echo Scratch.

It’s cliche to say you will never be forgotten but in this case it’s as true as the sun rising in the morning.

Jahlil Hutchins and John “Ecstasy” Fletcher...Thanks for what you gave/give to the culture.