FULL DISCLOSURE:
At its biggest, the collective of musicians that would become Cameo was once 14 members deep.

But let’s be real: Cameo would never have captured our attention without charismatic lead singer Larry Blackmon.

And his giant red codpiece.

In fact, Cameo already had 12 years in the game by the time “Word Up!” released in 1986. The song became the band’s biggest success and one of the 80’s biggest musical signs of the times.

In the years before their iconic hit, the members of Cameo were a deep funk band with a brass section, inspired by Parliament-Funkadelic. But the 80s ushered in a very different society with a very different style and sound. Gaudy costumes were out, over-the-top hair and accessories were in. Personal computers were just becoming a fixture in American homes. New Coke’s spokesperson was computer-generated. And definitive slang accompanied this bold, newly digitized era. Larry Blackmon and Cameo fully embraced that cultural shift in “Word Up!” and the culture ATE. IT. UP.

As the cherry on top, Cameo even cast LeVar Burton as their dance nemesis detective. At that point, the world only knew LeVar from Roots and Reading Rainbow. His next starring role was as Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’m not saying Gene Roddenberry was a Cameo fan, but I mean, who wasn’t?

Either way, everyone’s stock skyrocketed after “Word Up!” and basically hasn’t stopped since. “Word Up!” and Cameo’s follow up single, “Candy,” have been sampled and covered so many times it’d be impossible to list them all, but Mel B, Korn, Mariah Carey, and 2Pac are just a handful of the artists who’ve sold records on the shoulders of Larry Blackmon and the many, many still active members of Cameo.

We don’t have to talk about the codpiece.

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