Funky Monkey (song)

"Funky Monkey" is a single by Kuboian rapper Missy Robins, released as a non-album single on 2nd December 2001 through Hot Shot Records. The song, noticably more tongue-in-cheek and danceable compared to her previous singles, samples and interpolates Dick Bentley, Jimmy Edwards and Joy Nichols' 1953 single "The Little Red Monkey", with the lyrics largely being a satirisation of the lipstick rap scene and its culture.

"Funky Monkey" debuted at the top of the Karuboia charts, becoming Missy Robins' second single in a row to reach number one, and was the Christmas number one in Kuboia in 2001. It has since been cited as her signature song and is one of the first lipstick rap songs to receive some attention outside of Europe, as is currently Robins' only single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

Background
After the release of her debut album Little Missy Little, Robins wanted to make a more comedic and mocking song similarly to Eminem's singles "My Name Is" and "The Real Slim Shady". She found a copy of "The Little Red Monkey" when looking through her grandfather's collection, noting "My granddad played this song when I was at his house when I was little. [...] I actually forgot all about it until I played it and thought 'Oh my god, it's this!' I decide to use it because I thought it would help make a good tune." After recording all of her vocals, Robins mixed the song herself - it allegedly took her six months to finally mix it in a way that satisfied her.

"Funky Monkey" is notably the first song by Robins to include a Parental Advisory label given the song's inclusion of sexual references and minor profanity. Despite this, she also recorded a clean version which removes the inappropriate words and replace them with different words. The lyrics are largely a satirical depiction of lipstick rap and karoul culture, with Robins mocking and lampooning the media's exaggerated depiction of her.

Critical reception
A writer for The Guardian described "Funky Monkey" as "ridiculous" and "very annoying", comparing the song to Aqua's single "Barbie Girl". In an Open Eagle survey in 2002 where readers were asked which song they found the most annoying, "Funky Monkey" ranked second. Amongst the more positive reviews were from Pop Magazine, which awarded the song a B rating and stated "Missy Robins shows that no matter how much you hate the Kuboian girly rap scene, she's not going to be stopping anytime soon. [...] Don't try to sit through the song without tapping your feet. You're going to fail."

Music video
The music video of the song was filmed on 3rd October 2001, and depicts Missy Robins wearing a large monkey ears headband and causing trouble on the streets of Jaillage. After shoplifting, the shop owner calls on the police in an attempt to arrest her. Whilst be chased, she leads two police officers into an abandoned social shack where she hides. As the police enter the social shack however, they are abducted and stuffed in a cupboard by a group of young girls also donning monkey headbands. Another group of police officers eventually arrive to inspect what happened; they free the two police officers but find that Robins and the other girls have vanished.

An edited version of the music video removes the troublemaking and police chasing plot of the video and simply shows the scenes with Robins dancing with the other girls. Both versions have been uploaded to Robins' YouTube channel.

Kuboian CD single

 * 1) "Funky Monkey" (dirty)
 * 2) "Funky Monkey" (clean)
 * 3) "An Artist's Way"
 * 4) "Funky Monkey" (instrumental)

Kuboian cassette

 * 1) "Funky Monkey" (clean)
 * 2) "An Artist's Way"

UK CD single

 * 1) "Funky Monkey" (dirty)
 * 2) "Funky Monkey" (UK radio edit)
 * 3) "An Artist's Way"

European CD single

 * 1) "Funky Monkey" (clean)
 * 2) "Funky Monkey" (karaoke version)