Futura 2000

"There's a new dance out for you all to do / Started by a blue man about two-foot-two / He's been doing this dance since his day of birth / Now you can check it out for what it's worth, it's the Smurf..."

Throughout the early 1980s, track after track proliferated the airwaves dedicated to a dance craze known simply as, "The Smurf." Something like a smooth 2-step combined with shrug of the shoulders and sideways shuffle, the specific origins of the Smurf dance are murky, but those who were young during the 1980s know it when they see it. Released in 1982, The Smurfs "Smurf For What It's Worth" was the East coast's favorite song to Smurf to—made popular on the dancefloor of The Roxy, the storied Manhattan nightclub. The present lot takes the ""Smurf For What It's Worth" 12" and turns the physical media into a framed artwork, highlighting the back cover art designed by Futura 2000 (now "FUTURA").

"Smurf For What It's Worth" was released by Celluloid Records as 1/5 of the independent labels 1982 "New York City Rap" collection, part of the marketing campaign for Kool Lady Blue's European "New York City Rap Tour."

These five records and their accompanying European live tour would introduce the emerging genre of Hip Hop to the international market, and by the end of ’82, would solidify Hip Hop in the public imaginary as the meteoric, multi-disciplinary youth movement it was in its early days. FUTURA—another fifth of the five artists who recorded tracks for Celluloid collection—was also commissioned to create a pentaptych work that serves as back cover art for all five vinyls, creating a “collect-them-all” style hype around the New York City Rap singles through the consumer promise of owning your own Futura 2000 original if you simply bought all five that made these singles even more on demand.

Highlighting one section of Futura's initial pentaptych, the present lot finalizes the transition from vinyl sleeve to framed artwork with the inclusion of a black Sharpie tag, "FUTURA."

For a more complete history of Celluloid Record's 5-single "New York City Rap" collection, see Lot 15.