A Citizen-Led Civic Intervention in Detroit

Perhaps the world wasn’t truly ready for Scatman John, the bespectacled jazz-scat singer armed with dance-pop beats and a message of unity. But for a brief period in the mid-90s, he nearly took over anyway. On paper, his breakout debut single, 1994’s "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)," seemed like a tough sell in an era of woolly post-grunge and bass-booming G-funk and squeaky-clean R&B balladry. But he still managed to worm his way onto the Billboard charts and into the hearts of fans charmed by his unlikely success story—including the fact that scat-singing helped him manage a lifelong stutter.

Featured on his debut album, 1995’s Scatman’s World, "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" was a hit in numerous countries, even reaching No. 3 on the U.K. charts—a remarkable feat, given its unusual composition of scat-singing and pseudo-rapping. But none of the artist’s subsequent work achieved the same cultural impact, and, sadly, Scatman John died in 1999 at age 57, after being diagnosed with lung cancer. It’s rare to hear his signature song on the radio these days, though you do see it mentioned occasionally online—in 2017, for example, it appeared on Buzzfeed’s feature "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs Of the '90s." More recently, a resurfaced Scatman interview went viral on social media, introducing the track—and the meaning behind it—to a new audience.