Afrika Bambaataa was one of the leading figures in the creation of hip hop, but he has produced a lot of music in a variety of styles. Chief among them is electro, in which he was a big player in.
It’s hard to say exactly where “Reckless” fits in. There’s certainly strong elements of a certain style of electro, and old school hip hop (especially the rapping). However, in other ways, it resembles a pop song.
UB40 make their presence felt in this one, with some subtle reggae guitar offbeat skanks and singing on the chorus. They did the instruments, basically.
The song was produced by John Robie, who was a big part of the electro scene.
The bassline and main riff on this are criminally catchy. It’s just so amazingly groovy. I’m surprised it hasn’t been lifted and reused in a load of other songs.
The song is about guys who give all their money to women to try and impress them. The girls make you reckless.
The song was released on the album The Light in 1988, which wasn’t a very successful album itself, but as a single, the song reached number 17 in the U.K. singles chart.
A great pop tune!