Throwback Thursdays: Resident Alien’s “Mr. Boops”

Words by Jesse Serwer—

Prince Paul is known for his work with De La Soul, Gravediggaz, 3rd Bass and Handsome Boy Modeling School but the veteran hip-hop producer is no stranger to Caribbean music, either—or at least parodies of it. As highlighted in our recent rundown of Toppa Top fake reggae tunes, 2005’s ItsTrumental boasted a hilarious faux dancehall tune about a Boston creme donut (“Boston Top”). Baby Elephant, Paul and Don Newkirk’s project with P-Funk’s Bernie Worrell, featured Yellowman on the tongue-in-cheek “Cool Runnings,” from their lone LP.

Years earlier, Paul was actually the idea man behind a full-on Caribbean group, with an only slightly more serious M.O. Resident Alien got their name because, while all three group members (Double Brain, Dragon and Mr. Bug) had grown up in the U.S., the mixed yardie and Guyanese crew still didn’t have their citizenship papers. One of two singles from the trio’s never-released It Takes A Nation of Suckas to Let Us In LP, “Mr. Boops,” was a hip-hop tune that picked up on the trend of “boops” (or sugar daddy)-themed songs popular in late ’80s dancehall. The theme of the single’s art, shot outside of a West Indian grocery in Paul and the Aliens’ hometown of Amityville, Long Island, even played out in a video for the hilarious tune (My favorite line: “I’ll bring you home and unzip the trousers/Hit the remote, oh no, Doogie Howser”), starring the same boops from the cover art.

Unless you were a major major hip-hop head in the early ’90s, you’ve probably never heard of Resident Alien or “Mr. Boops” but with Negroes on Ice— Paul’s new project with his son, P ForReal—dropping their debut LP this week, we just had to dig this one out.