Musical Montage: Ini Kamoze “Here Comes the Hotstepper”
Eternal 90s jam “Here Comes the Hotstepper” from Ini Kamoze has definitely long outlasted any memory of the movie it was featured on the soundtrack for, 1994’s Ready to Wear. Also known as Pret-a-Porter, the movie was directed by the great Robert Altman and follow’s a murderer’s row of stars, including Julia Roberts, Kim Basinger, Sophia Loren, Forest Whitaker, Tim Robbins, Lili Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Danny Aiello, Terri Garr, Tracy Ullman, Lyle Lovett and more as numerous characters’ lives intersect in the week leading up to Paris Fashion Week. It was a critical and commercial failure for Altman and, if it’s remembered at all, it’s only by Altman completionists. “Here Comes the Hotstepper” though is still one of the best remembered and loved 90s jams, especially because of its iconic sample of Cannibal & The Headhunters cover of “Land of a Thousand Dances” in its chorus (the “na na na na” part). The song came from Ini Kamoze’s album of the same name and was his only song to break into the Billboard Hot 100, hitting the top of the chart in December of 1994 and staying there for two weeks. The music video features scenes from the movie and actually has Kamoze interrupting and freezing scenes and then entering them and it also plays up the “fashion week” theme of the movie by featuring lots of models. Check it out below.
