Sonicnet Music News

Getting your best-known hit crooned on a ubiquitous Priceline.com TV commercial by William Shatner might make some artists wonder what kind of monster they've created.

Not Young M.C., whose Grammy Award-winning single, "Bust A Move," made him a pop sensation in 1989.

I still get love from that song," the rapper said. "I am 33 years old. I could die tomorrow, and people will remember that song.

Now, the rapper, who followed up his platinum debut album, "Stone Cold Rhymin'," with "Brainstorm" (1991), "What's The Flavor?" (1993), and "Return Of The 1 Hit Wonder" (1997), is preparing his fifth LP, "Ain't Goin' Out Like That," which is due on September 12.

In the years since his debut, record company executives have pushed Young M.C., who also helped pen Tone-Loc's smash hits "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina," to sound like rap's then-current hitmakers. He said he resists that pressure, as well as

the pressure to follow current musical fads.

I've been on both sides of the table," Young M.C. said. "Back when my album came out, record companies were telling artists 'I know you have your record finished and everything, but could you please make a song that sounds like "Bust A Move?"'

I found in black music [now], it's about who produced it and where the sample came from," he continued. "It gets away from the song itself." Several songs on the album, such as "After Dark," have layered meanings, something he feels is another rarity in the genre.

'After Dark' is more than just surface," he said. "Double entendres are rare in rap. You can't be subtle.... You have to hit it from the back.

Even though he was bucking some trends on "Ain't Goin' Out Like That," the rapper also was cautious with his new project. For the first time, he shopped tracks to radio station executives before choosing his first single, he said.

His choice was "What

It Look Like," a song "about people who front," the rapper said. The song is tentatively due this month. In the lyrics he chides people who struggle to maintain a lavish lifestyle. It's about "not being irresponsible and not going out like that," he said, adding that the radio folks called the song "refreshing.

Young M.C. also said the entire album has a bicoastal vibe.

I hear a lot of West Coast, so you will hear that," he said. "But I grew up on the East Coast, so you will hear that in my lyrical flow.