Inner City Life

"Inner City Life" is a 1994 single by British electronic musician Goldie. It features vocals by British singer Diane Charlemagne. The single is taken from his acclaimed 1995 debut album, Timeless and is one of the most iconic drum and bass works of its era.[1] It peaked at number 39 in the UK. In 2013, the song was ranked No. 30 in Mixmag's list of "50 Greatest Dance Tracks of All Time".[2]

"Inner City Life"
Single by Goldie Presents Metalheadz
from the album Timeless
B-side"Remix"
Released1994
Genre
Length
  • 3:50 (radio edit)
  • 7:00 (full-length)
  • 21:03 (album version)
LabelFFRR
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Goldie
Goldie Presents Metalheadz singles chronology
"Inner City Life"
(1994)		 "Angel"
(1995)
Music video
"Inner City Life" on YouTube

Background and release

"Inner City Life" is a portion of the album's first track, "Timeless: Inner City Life/Pressure/Jah", which is a 21-minute opus. The song fuses the breakbeats and basslines common in jungle with orchestral textures and soul vocals by Diane Charlemagne. It has been described as a ghetto-blues ballad, 'a yearning reverie of sanctuary from "inner-city pressure"'.[3] The track features a sample from Ike Turner's song "Funky Mule", from his 1969 album A Black Man's Soul.[4]

"Inner City Life" peaked at No. 49 on the UK Singles Chart in 1994. In 1995, it re-entered the chart, peaking at No. 39. "Inner City Life" was performed live at The Word[5] on Channel 4 and it was included on the soundtrack to the film Trainspotting (Trainspotting 2: Music from the Motion Picture, Vol. 2). At the time of the release, the single didn't receive much radio play, according to Goldie. In a 2008 interview, he said:

It’s still a good b-line after all this time. The thing I was kind of mad about was it never got radio play. No one would ever want to play it on the radio. Rinse FM or Kiss FM would not play the record and I found it very difficult, because when you look at it conventionally, it’s a good record. But then it was completely out of sorts and I found that very difficult as far as "Timeless" was concerned. "Timeless" was made first and then "Inner City Life" came out of it and I always found it very difficult that no one wanted to play it on radio and didn't want to give it the air time.[6]

Critical reception
Diane Charlemagne in the "Inner City Life" music video

Rupert Howe from Muzik wrote,

This is a masterpiece of melancholy, with all the dark/light, bass/melody contrasts in jungle thrown into kaleidoscopic relief. The spectral strings move disturbingly in and out of focus, the low frequencies seem to open up underneath you, and the eerie mutations of Diane Charlemagne's vocals float in the ether, utterly lost in space. Emotionally, it's all over the place - joyful one minute, intense enough to suck the daylight out of you the next. Anything to make you feel more alive."[7]

Charles Aaron from Spin noted,

...Goldie has been doing time for a couple of years in London's hardcore techno and jungle scene where insanely speedy breakbeats mixed with goofy vocal snatches run on endless loop. But with "Inner City Life", he inhabits another realm altogether. Like Marvin Gaye ruminating while rushing, he fades a breathtaking vocal by Diane Charlemagne (plus muted trumpet) in and out of ethereal beats. Fraught with dub's tensely apocalyptic vision and techno's hopeful twitch, this is finally the sound of an urban pulse that acknowledges both black and white expressions and tensions, and the feeling of coming up, going down, and needing to keep dancing forever. No other jungle I've heard has sounded like this. Or any other dance music, for that matter."[8]

Music video

The music video of "Inner City Life" was directed by Mike Lipscombe.[9] The video has a sepia tone.

Impact and legacy

In 1996, Mixmag ranked "Inner City Life" at No. 34 in its list of the best singles of 1996, "Mixmag End of Year Lists: 1996".[10]

David Crawford called the track "epic" in the 2010 book 10,001 Songs You Must Hear…, adding that it "boasted swirling strings, a clattering break beat that evolved throughout the track, and Diane Charlemagne's sweet, soulful vocals on top."[11]

In 2013, Complex included it in their list of "The 15 Best Songs From the Electronica Era". They noted, "Chock full of soul, precision breakbeat edits, and strings, "Inner City Life" helped let the mainstream know that drum & bass was more than the chin-stroking dark sounds in the corner, and was more than capable of making tracks that could move you emotionally."[12] Same year the song was ranked No. 30 in Mixmag's list of "50 Greatest Dance Tracks of All Time".[13]

In 2018, Time Out listed the track at No. 23 in their "50 best '90s songs" list, adding, "Fusing jungle’s intricate breakbeats, sub bass and unbridled futurism with heart-aching soul soundscapes and the lamenting voice of Diane Charlemagne, this beautiful-yet-brutal piece of sonic art switched an entire generation on to the power of jungle and D&B."[14]

Accolades
Year Publisher Country Accolade Rank
1996 Mixmag United Kingdom "End of Year Lists: 1996" 34
1999 Spin United States "The Top 20 Singles of the 90s"[15] 9
2004 IDJ United States "The 50 Greatest Dance Singles"[16] 20
2005 Süddeutsche Zeitung Germany "1020 Songs 1955-2005" *
2010 Groove Germany "Die 100 wichtigsten Tracks der letzten 20 Jahre" *
2010 Musikexpress Germany "The 50 Best Songs of the 1990s" 42
2011 The Guardian United Kingdom "A history of modern music: Dance"[17] *
2013 Complex United States "The 15 Best Songs From the Electronica Era" *
2013 Mixmag United Kingdom "50 Greatest Dance Tracks of All Time" 30
2015 Robert Dimery United States "1,001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die, and 10,001 You Must Download (2015 Update)" *
2018 Time Out United Kingdom "50 best '90s songs" 23
2019 BBC United Kingdom "30 tracks that shaped dance music over the last 30 years"[18] *

(*) indicates the list is unordered.

Track listing
12"-single, Goldie Presents Metalheads – "Inner City Life" (1994)
No.TitleLength
1."Inner City Life" 
2."Jah" 
12"-single, Goldie Presents Metalheads – "Inner City Life" (remixes) (1994)
No.TitleLength
1."Inner City Life" (Roni Size instant mix) 
2."Inner City Life" (Nookie remix) 
Maxi-single, Goldie Presents Metalheads – "Inner City Life" (1994)
No.TitleLength
1."Inner City Life" (radio edit)3:50
2."Inner City Life" (full-length)7:00
3."Inner City Life" (4 Hero mix Pt. 1)8:24
4."Inner City Life" (Roni Size instant mix)5:47
CD-single, Goldie – "Inner City Life" (1995)
No.TitleLength
1."Inner City Life" (original version)7:00
2."Inner City Life" (Peshay mix)9:41
3."Inner City Life" (Doc Scott mix)8:14
12"-single, Goldie vs. Rabbit in the Moon – "Inner City Life" (the remixes) (1996)
No.TitleLength
1."Inner City Life" (Rabbit in the Moon's Vocalic City)11:20
2."Inner City Life" (Rabbit in the Moon's Escape from Vocalic City)7:58
3."Inner City Life" (Rabbit in the Moon's Return to Vocalic City)7:06
Maxi-single, Goldie – "Inner City Life" (the remixes) (1996)
No.TitleLength
1."Inner City Life" (original edit)3:13
2."Inner City Life" (Baby Boy's edit)3:34
3."Inner City Life" (Rabbit's Short Attention Span edit)4:20
4."Inner City Life" (Goes to Miami mix)5:39
5."Inner City Life" (4 Hero mix Pt. 1)8:22
6."Inner City Life" (Rabbit in the Moon's Vocalic City)11:20
7."Inner City Life" (Rabbit in the Moon's Escape from Vocalic City)7:58
8."Inner City Life" (Peshay mix)9:40
9."Inner City Life" (Baby Boys)6:49
10."Inner City Life" (Rabbit in the Moon's Return to Vocalic City)7:06

Chart performance

Weekly charts
Chart (1994) Peak
position
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[19] 49
UK Dance (Official Charts Company)[20] 6
Chart (1995) Peak
position
Scotland (Official Charts Company)[21] 47
UK Singles (Official Charts Company) 39
UK Dance (Official Charts Company)[22] 17
UK R&B (Official Charts Company)[23] 6

Cover versions, samples and remixes
  • German jazz band [Re:jazz] covered "Inner City Life" on their 2004 album Point of View.
  • English rapper Wiley sampled "Inner City Life" on his song "Need to Be" from the 2008 album See Clear Now.
  • Aaron Jerome and his musical project Sbtrkt sampled the song on the song "Timeless", in 2009.
  • It was sampled on "Strictly (Kassem Mosse 'Need to Feel edit' remix)" by Commix in 2010.
  • British band Hackney Colliery Band covered "Inner City Life" on their album Common Decency in 2013.
  • British DJ Om Unit sampled "Inner City Life" on his song "Parallel" from the 2014 album Inversion.
  • Goldie remastered the song in 2017.[24]

References
  1. "Diane Charlemagne, Vocalist for Moby, Urban Cookie Collective and Goldie, Dies at 51". billboard.com. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  2. "What is the greatest dance track of all time?". mixmag.net. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  3. "Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture". Simon Reynolds. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  4. "Inner City Life by Goldie feat. Diane Charlemagne". whosampled.com. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  5. "Goldie Presents Metalheads Inner City Life". youtube.com. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  6. "Goldie". redbullmusicacademy.com. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  7. "ALBUMS" (PDF). Muzik. 1 August 1995. p. 67. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  8. Aaron, Charles (May 1995). "Singles Review". Spin: 100. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  9. "Goldie – Inner City Life (1994)". mvdbase.com. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  10. http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/mixmag.html#singles
  11. Dimery, Robert, ed. (2011) [2010]. "10,001 Songs You Must Hear…". 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die. Octopus Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-84403-684-4.
  12. "The 15 Best Songs From the Electronica Era". Complex. 5 August 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  13. "What is the greatest dance track of all time?". mixmag.net. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  14. "50 Best '90s Songs". Time Out. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  15. "Goldie - Inner City Life/Timeless (Part 1: Inner City Life)". Acclaimedmusic. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  16. "iDJ magazine 50 greatest dance singles (2004)". Acclaimed Music. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  17. "A history of modern music: Dance". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  18. "30 tracks that shaped dance music over the last 30 years". BBC. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  19. "GOLDIE PRESENTS METALHEADS". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  20. "Official UK Dance Singles Chart (04 December 1994-10 December 1994)". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  21. "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100 05 November 1995 - 11 November 1995". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  22. "Official UK Dance Singles Chart (05 November 1995-11 November 1995)". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  23. "Official UK R&B Singles Chart (05 November 1995 - 11 November 1995)". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  24. "Goldie - Inner City Life (2017 Rebuild / Burial Remix)". Resident Advisor. Archived from the original on 10 September 2017. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
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