“This Is Acid” by Maurice

"This Is Acid", full title "This Is Acid (A New Dance Craze)", came out of Chicago in 1988 with house DJ and producer Maurice Joshua working under his first name, and it plays like a guided tour of the city's acid house sound. The words are spoken rather than sung, delivered by "Hot Hands" Hula Mahone, and they walk the listener into the new sound like a club MC with a manifesto.

A&M put it out, and in April 1989 it sat at number one on Billboard's dance club chart for two weeks. It turned out to be Joshua's only hit single, but he kept working behind the desk as a producer and remixer, and in 2004 his remix of Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" won him a Grammy.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.