White Lines
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"White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" is a song by Melle Mel, released as a 12" in 1983 on Sugar Hill Records. The song, which warns against the dangers of cocaine, addiction, and drug smuggling, is one of Melle Mel's signature tracks. The instantly recognizable bassline is sampled from a performance of the Sugar Hill house band playing Liquid Liquid's "Cavern". When originally released it was credited to Grandmaster + Melle Mel. This was done to mislead the public into believing that Grandmaster Flash participated on the record, when in fact he played no part and had already left the record label the previous year^{citation needed}.

"White Lines" peaked at #47 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart in 1983.¹ The song fared better in the United Kingdom, reaching number 7 on the UK Singles Chart in July of 1984, spending 17 consecutive weeks in the top-40. It was the 13th best-selling single of 1984 in the UK, selling more than a number of number one hits that year.

The unofficial music video was directed by New York University film student Spike Lee and starred Laurence Fishburne.

Originally, the song was intended to be an ironic celebration of a cocaine-fueled party lifestyle, but it was abridged with the "don't do it" message as an anti-cocaine song as a concession to commercial considerations. ²

Covers

Main article: White Lines (Duran Duran song)

Duran Duran released an electronica/alternative rock/rap cover as a single from their 1995 album Thank You; this version reached #17 on the UK Singles Chart. They were backed by the original musicians on the track, and as of 2006, the band is continuing to perform the song as a regular part of their live set.

• Happy Go Licky did an improvised version of the song during their brief existence; one live recording of their version appears on their posthumous release Will Play.
• ReTouch also covered the song "White Lines" in the summer of 2006.
• Barefoot released a jazz version in 2006.
• DJ rx used samples of speeches given by President George W. Bush to create a cover of "White Lines" for the album ThePartyParty.
• A modern rock remake was recorded in 2002 by Fuze (formerly Ultralight), an independent band from Orange County, CA featuring lead singer Loren W. Brown, Jr. who originally made a name for himself as singer/songwriter of the popular Newport Beach indy band The Day.
• The metal band Lifer from Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania made a cover to this song.

Samples

The bassline and/or the refrain "something like a phenomenon" has been sampled by:

• Mobb Deep for the 1999 song "Quiet Storm"
• 112 for the 2001 song "It's Over Now"
• Limp Bizkit for the 2003 song "Phenomenon"
• Mighty Casey for the 2003 song "White Girls" (also known as "Whities")
• LL Cool J for the song "Phenomenon"
• De La Soul for the song "Ego Trippin' (Part Two)"
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs for the "Phenomena"
• Motion picture 25th hour by Spike Lee features a club scene in which a character called "DJ Dusk" (played by DJ Cipha Sounds) samples the bassline of "White Lines".
• In the film Shaun of the Dead, two of the main characters drunkenly sing the song, at one point accompanied by a zombie. [1]

Trivia

• In 1988, the song was used as part of an anti-heroin public information film in the UK.

References

• "White Lines" release details at Discogs

Footnotes