Herbie Hancock completely overhauled his sound and conquered MTV with his most radical step forward since the sextet days. He brought in Bill Laswell of Material as producer, along with Grand Mixer D.ST on turntables -- and the immediate result was "Rockit," which makes quite a post-industrial metallic racket. Frankly, the whole record is an enigma; for all of its dehumanized, mechanized textures and rigid rhythms, it has a vitality and sense of humor that make it difficult to turn off. Moreover, Herbie can't help but inject a subversive funk element when he comps along to the techno beat -- and yes, some real, honest-to-goodness jazz licks on a grand piano show up in the middle of "Auto Drive." ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
Composed in 1983, Hancock enlisted avant-gardebassist and record producerBill Laswell to record an album that would go towards a postmodern direction, instead of his usual straight-ahead jazz. The result was a hip-hop influenced album, which combined Hancock's keyboard mastery with Laswell's innovative arrangements and Grand Mixer DXT's turntablism. According to 1999 re-issue's liner notes, when Laswell went to buy speakers at a music equipment store he would insist on testing them by playing the demos of "Rockit" and "Earth Beat". While those songs were played through the speakers, passing by customers apparently liked what they heard and danced to the music. Soon after Laswell let Hancock know about the incident, eventually telling him: "We got something good here."
"Rockit", the album's big hit, was accompanied by one of the most successful music videos ever. The video, directed by Godley and Creme, featured dancing robots made by Jim Whiting (de), moving around to the beat of the music and the turntable scratching. Hancock won several MTV Music Video awards in 1984, as well as the Grammy award for best R&B performance.
Track listing
All songs written by Michael James Beinhorn, Herbie Hancock and Bill O. Laswell (except where noted).
