A “HI DE HO” FOR WCM

The estate of Cab Calloway has signed a worldwide administration agreement with Warner Chappell Music. The pact includes classics such as “Minnie the Moocher,” “Are You All Reet?” and “Are You Hep to the Jive? (Yas, Yas).”

“Cab Calloway had an enormous influence on the course of modern music, from the swing era of the '30s to the hip-hop of today,” reads a joint statement issued by Warner Chappell Music Co-Chair and CEO Guy Moot and Co-Chair and COO Carianne Marshall. “He was a pioneering artist whose wide-ranging talents crossed musical, racial and cultural boundaries. Calloway literally defined what it meant to be hip, while writing and performing music that remains as irresistible today as it was nearly a century ago.”

With the 1931 release of "Minnie the Moocher,” Calloway became the first Black artist to sell a million records. He was also one of the first performers to combine singing and improvised rhythmic speaking in a style and flow that critics have hailed as the precursor of hip-hop. Moreover, he was the first Black artist to have a national radio show.

And, of course, there’s this: