Johmbolaya This Is

When Jeru first released “Come Clean”, I thought the word “Damaja” was French until I heard Ed Lover say it properly, as in “damager”. I don’t live in an area where hip-hop was played on the radio at all, so my intake of it was either by reading “The Source” and thus taking changes, BET or MTV.  I did not have access to mix tapes, at least not locally.  However, when I first heard this song, it was immediate.  Loved the sample, loved the beat, loved the vibe, loved the video.  Plus, I grew up with that Disneyland Haunted House record with the segment that touched on Chinese water torture, and I was one of those dumb kids who would go in the bathtub, turn the water on to where it became a steady drip, and see if I would freak out.  Years later, when I saw the video of the man going through Chinese water torture, I thought “YES!”