"Candy" is a song by funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 group Cameo

Cameo (band)

Cameo is an American soul-influenced funk group that formed in the early 1970s. Cameo was initially a 13-member group known as the New York City Players; this name was later changed to Cameo to avoid a lawsuit from Ohio Players, another group from that era. Since then, Cameo has recorded several...

, released as the second single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 from their 1986 album Word Up!

Word Up!

Word Up! is an album by funk/R&B group Cameo released in 1986. The record made Cameo one of the most successful bands of that decade.-Track listing:*Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6 & 7 Published By All Seeing Eye Music-Better Days Music...

. It reached number twenty-one on the Hot 100 and number one on the R&B charts in 1987. The song has recently been featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...

and can be heard on the Bounce FM radio station in the game.

The song has been sampled by various artists, including 2Pac

Tupac Shakur

Tupac Amaru Shakur , known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world...

 ("All Bout U", featured on his album All Eyez on Me

All Eyez on Me

All Eyez on Me is the fourth studio album by American rapper 2Pac, released February 13, 1996 on Death Row Records and Interscope Records....

), Will Smith

Will Smith

Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...

 ("Candy", on his album Big Willie Style

Big Willie Style

Big Willie Style is the first solo studio album recorded by Will Smith, after spending most of his career as the latter half of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince...

), and Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...

 ("Loverboy

Loverboy (Mariah Carey song)

"Loverboy" is a song by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey. It was released on July 16, 2001 by Virgin Records as the lead single from Carey's eighth studio album, Glitter . Written and produced by Carey, Larry Blackmon, Thomas Jenkins, Clark Kent, "Loverboy" is built around a sample from...

", on the soundtrack to the film Glitter

Glitter (film)

Glitter is a 2001 film starring R&B singer, songwriter Mariah Carey. It was produced by 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures and directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall. It centers on the life and times of a struggling singer from the early club music scene in the 1980s.-Production:Carey has said about...

); the latter song would reach #2 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 in 2001. The Black Eyed Peas

The Black Eyed Peas

The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...

 sampled it for the song "Ba Bump" from their album Monkey Business

Monkey Business (album)

-Track listing:Notes*"My Humps" contains a hidden track "So Real".*"Audio Delite at Low Fidelity" includes a hidden track "Change".Sample Notes*"Pump It" samples "Misirlou" by Dick Dale....

.

Cameo tried to capitalize on the song's success by re-using the melody

Melody

A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...

 on the song "Honey" from their next album, Machismo

Machismo (album)

Machismo is funk/R&B group Cameo's 1988 follow up to their successful album Word Up!. It featured the hits "You Make Me Work" and "Skin I'm In," which both have been issued on various compilation albums...

.

The song contains numerous cocaine references in its lyrics, such as: "you mind if I have a little bit more at a time", "wrapped up tight", referring to the way bags of cocaine come wrapped, and "toss and turn in my bed", "you're takin my appetite", "you're givin' me a heart attack", all references to cocaine's side effects.

External links

• "Candy" at Discogs
  Discogs
  Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...