ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "I Wish" by Skee-Lo

Whenever I would hear of Too Short, I would think he was the "I Wish" guy, something I better not say to anyone in Oakland where I now live

Heh that Family Guy bit was the first time i'd thought about that song since i'd seen Rap Critic's episode on it, that was pretty funny(I think the show in general is still pretty good even if it'll never regain it's former glory). Anyways interesting song but I can see why this guy only had the one hit. According to Discogs "I Can't Stop" did come out in the U.S. though it might've been a very limited release as I could only find two copies on Ebay:https://www.discogs.com/release/13440018-Skee-Lo-I-Cant-Stop I know a guy who has a big collection of obscure and short-lived black TV shows so i'll ask him if he has Goode Behavior or that Dangerous Minds show. Also i'll see if anyone on the lost media wiki has MTV Beach House.

Skee-Lo actually did have a second Top 40 hit, called "Magic Man." Unfortunately, it was featured on the Sinbad SHAZAAM movie soundtrack, and when that disappeared from our plane of existence, all traces of the song disappeared too.

Skee-Lo has the flow of a 1988 Rapper. That's fine for a novelty one hit in the mid 90's but I can see why nothing else caught on after that.

Funny that you mention this sounding like a Childish Gambino song transported back in time because it reminded me of another early 10's song - and from another One-Hit Wonder to boot! - Spose's "I'm Awesome". And this song gives me Pharcyde vibes, who were going strong underground with critical acclaim, though those guys come off more 'affable nerd' than 'lovable loser' EDIT: DAMMIT just saw the Pharcyde namedrop lol.

There's about two minutes of black, silence minus one windows sound, and then a clip of you saying the "don't make songs about being a one hit wonder" again at the end, btw. Good video, though! I avoided this song for a long time because some asshole professors of mine were obsessed with it, but turns out it is, in fact, a pretty good song.

Cut yourself some slack about working faster. If you were able to find some usable information post "I Wish" about this guy, it wouldn't have taken so long to produce the piece. Turns out the only one discussing Skee-Lo was Skee-Lo This song gets a lot of commercial play, so at least he is getting some sweet, sweet, Jingle $$ on the side.

i've been waiting for this song to be covered for so long. one of my absolute favorite hip-hop one hit wonders. thank you todd

LOVE that you are jumping on these (forgotten but never really) 90's hip hop and rock songs that kinda fly under the radar but never really leave your consciousness, you know? This is where todd in the shadows really serves the shadows. Well done.

Maybe I'm just being nitpicky, but, there's quite a few awkward silences before some lines are spoken.

I mostly know this because MC Lars sampled the chorus for his song "White Kids Aren't Hyphy." If you haven't heard that song, it's pretty good. Just know that if you didn't grow up in the Bay Area in the mid to late 2000s, half of it will sound like gibberish. Also, I must be slow. I always thought the "rabbit in a hat" line was him wishing for some kind of miraculous luck.

You could argue ms new booty or a milli but this is the iconic mashup song for my money. Must of heard that first verse hundreds of times over all sorts of other songs, from royskopp to wheatus

Did Todd just admit to getting a hooker with a side of rum or am I bugging

I liked this song a lot when I was 12, and I thought Skee-Lo would have a bigger career. I also really liked his song on the Schoolhouse Rock album.

I Can't Stop, his second album, definitely does exist - there's a dozen copies up for sale on Discogs, albeit with a different cover: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1267077&ev=mb

I have never heard, nor heard of, this song, even though it came out my freshman year of high school.

Good to hear you have a nice car now, Todd, I just rewatched an older video where you mentioned how your previous car kept breaking down.

Here's some trivia: Bernard Wright's godmother was Robert Flack. His best known song "Who Do You Love" was also sampled by LL Cool J's "Loungin"

May the endless stream of fun and quirky mid-90s one-hits never end. Amen.

It looked like a jail cell door was going close behind Cee-Lo when you said "bigger and better things"

This was always the song I would have requested if you would ever do requests again, so I'm very very happy to see this episode!

Not kidding, I was listening to this just yesterday and wondering when you'd do an episode on it. Amazing timing.

There's a couple minutes of blank screen/silence at the end with one line from earlier in the video at the very end - otherwise great vid!

20:26 there's a windows sound

No major comment, just wanted to say Nard by Bernard Wright is one of my favorite albums (Haboglabotribin' and Bread Sandwiches are definite highlights besides Spinnin' as well) and I Wish is great, too!

Very good video and honestly good on you for aknowledging past mistakes and trying to be more thourough. Very good.

I’m going to be seeing Edgar Winter play with Ringo’s All-Starr Band in a couple of weeks. Maybe he’ll finally break out “Joy City” or “Cry Out”.

My old band played a show with skeelo in around 2012. It’s a long, insane story. Just know that for a few minutes i was convinced i was going to die. This video gives me flashbacks.

There's like a minute of black screen+silence at the end of the video then just the clip of you talking about one hit wonder rappers that was presumably left on the timeline.

I wish you'd finish the piano intro with "Hello" and then cut right to the song! Another brilliant episode

I’m six feet tall and still really identified with this one. People who struggle to hook up are far more common than most popular music wants to admit.

I definitely remember Keep Holdin' On, which means it had to have gotten at least a little airplay in Austria (and probably Germany) at the time. Would also fit with the claim that his second album only came out in Germany.

Todd I don't know what to tell you but if London Calling doesn't absolutely massacre anarchy in the UK there's gonna be some problems

Baywatch keep on coming up lately.... Almost makes me wish for a crossover with Alison Pregler and Baywatching but I know that those days are over.

Great video despite how little information there exists about the guy. You also should look up his appearance on the "Schoolhouse Rock Rocks" compilation where he covers "The Tale of Mister Morton" and I can think of worse ways to be taught subject/predicate agreement than by Skee-Lo

This is like the Pinkerton of 90’s rap songs

I was sure that when Rap Critic covered this, we wouldn’t get a OHW version of this song, but I’m glad we did.

There's about a minute of black screen and silence at the end for me.

The complains about 90s rap reflect some of the complains about Alt Rock in the 90s -- it was over-commercialized, formulaic, all about the cliches, etc... We look back at both with a lot of fondness these days, but by the mid-90s both genres were taking on similar complaints.

Woah! I thought this would be a good one hit wonderland video when I heard it awhile back. That’s awesome.

Todd, I *just* got this earworm out of my head all these years later.

Anyone seeing only 360p, its likely YouTube still processing the video, its more than likely not an error and higher resolutions should be available soon

I just get an error

The video isn’t there again. 😅