| "The Ghetto" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Donny Hathaway | ||||
| from the album Everything Is Everything | ||||
| A-side | The Ghetto, Pt. 1 | |||
| B-side | The Ghetto, Pt. 2 | |||
| Released | 1970 | |||
| Recorded | 1969 | |||
| Genre | jazz/jazz fusion | |||
| Length | 6:50 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Writer(s) | Donny Hathaway & Leroy Hutson | |||
| Producer | Donny Hathaway & Ric Powell | |||
| Donny Hathaway singles chronology | ||||
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"The Ghetto" is a socially conscious, mostly instrumental Jazz/Latin Jazz flavored anthem, released as the first single off American soul singer Donny Hathaway's debut album, Everything Is Everything, released as a single in 1970 on Atlantic Records.
The song was co-written by Hathaway and Leroy Hutson. The song was a six minute and fifty second workout which built upon a cinematic feel with its lengthy instrumental though it did feature vocal ad-libs from Hathaway, who played electric piano on the song, and constant chants of the song, which had a distinguished Afro-Cuban sound with congas.
The song also featured additional backgrounds, dialogue from what sound like men talking on a street corner and a baby crying before Hathaway ended the song with frenetic hand claps.
When originally released in 1970, the song became a modest charted single peaking at number eighty-seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and number twenty-three on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart.
The song was also featured on Hathaway's revered Live album in which Hathaway and his musicians played a faster version of the song and later featured Hathaway getting the audience into it singing the final chorus.
Since then, the song has been covered in hip-hop singles, most famously, Too Short's "The Ghetto", which featured Gerald Levert re-singing the chorus.