Cameo dropped the funky instrumental "It's Serious" back in 1977. This smokin’ jam is one of the legendary funk band’s most underrated tracks. It features a ferocious beat and a badass bass line. The percolating clavinets and slick horn arrangement put an exclamation point on the funk. And the disco-flavored bridge is smooth as butter. The song has been receiving some much-deserved love recently thanks to a popular video of the talented Amsterdam-based dance troupe Ghetto Funk Collective bustin’ moves to it.
“It’s Serious” has been sampled on two songs and was featured in a dance scene from the 1978 musical-comedy Thank God It’s Friday.
It was a single from Cameo’s second album We All Know Who We Are (1977) and was written by Larry Blackmon and Gregory Johnson. The song peaked at #21 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart and #39 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart. The album was produced by Blackmon and released on Chocolate City Records. The other single from the collection was the infectious mellow jam “It’s Over,” which climbed to #60 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart. We All Know Who We Are saw some solid chart action, peaking at #58 on the Billboard 200 album chart and #15 on Billboard’s R&B album chart.
The full band lineup for We All Know Who We Are was Larry Blackmon (lead and backing vocals, drums, producer), Eric Durham (lead and rhythm guitar), Gary Dow (bass), Wayne Cooper (lead and backing vocals, percussion), Arnett Leftenant (tenor saxophone, backing vocals, percussion), Gregory Johnson (keyboards, piano, vocals), Nathan Leftenant ( trumpet, percussion, backing vocals), Tomi Jenkins (lead and backing vocals, timbales) and Charles Sampson (lead guitar on the song “C On The Funk”). The Tity Brothers (trombonist Jeryl Bright and saxophonist Melvin Wells) did the horn arrangements for the album.
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