Musical Montage: The Blackout All-Stars “I Like It Like That”
When you name your movie after a song, you definitely need to have a version of that song on your soundtrack and luckily 1994’s I Like It Like That had a killer cover of Pete Rodriguez’s “I Like It Like That” from the supergroup The Blackout All-Stars. The movie stars Luna Lauren Valez and Jon Seda as a Puerto Rican/Jamaican and Puerto Rican couple living in the South Bronx and dealing with marital and financial issues. It was the debut film from writer/director Darnell Martin and she was the first female Black director to direct a film for a major studio. As mentioned, the movie takes its title from the Pete Rodriguez boogaloo hit from 1967 and a Latin supergroup was formed to cover the song for the movie. The Blackout All-Stars consisted of Ray Barretto, Sheila E., Tito Puente, Tito Nieves, Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Valentin, and Grover Washington Jr., and the song was released as a single to promote the movie and the soundtrack, but it failed to chart. Two years later, the song finally gained popularity when Burger King started using it for an ad campaign and it started to climb the charts, peaking at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video also started to go back into rotation on MTV and VH1. Despite the delayed success, “I Like It Like That” was the only song recorded by The Blackout All-Stars. You can check out the music video below.
