[5] They were contemporaries of other hip hop groups such as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Afrika Bambaataa, Run-DMC, the Fat Boys and Warp 9.

[5] Whodini combined the goofy fun of the Fat Boys with the virtuosity of Run-DMC to create what is the rap equivalent of horror movies.

Heavy on the sound effects, the song is full of references to various famous monsters and boogymen – Count Dracula, Bloody Mary and the Invisible Man all show up.

Escape has been praised by the staff of Complex as "an early high watermark of party rap", with the album's melodicism and synth pop production being singled out for particular acclaim.

A number of songs from the album received heavy local New York airplay, such as "Funky Beat" and the controversial "I'm a Ho".

With their fourth studio album Open Sesame, their final release of the 1980s,[5] the group had turned away from their once-playful simple beats and catchy rhymes of the old-school, and instead became vocally harder and more instrument-driven, with guitars and horns and bells.

This new-school style had been similarly done almost a year previously, on the multi-million selling debut studio albums by LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys, as many groups had already turned to the kind of hip hop and rock music that crossed over easily, and Open Sesame failed to produce any real hits.

Although the group was still obligated to Jive Records, for the next few years the band eked out its tenure by occasionally only releasing singles, including "Anyway I Gotta Swing It" for the 1989 A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child movie soundtrack.

In the 1990s, the band made an attempt at a comeback, and in that same year the group signed with MCA Records and released their fifth album Bag-a-Trix in 1991, which failed to have commercial impact, as it tried again to reinvent using the then-current sound of new jack swing.

In mid-1994, the group scored a hit single with "It All Comes Down to the Money",[5] which was co-produced by Public Enemy DJ Terminator X on his studio album Super Bad (1994).

The album was fully produced by Dupri, except for three tracks, which were created by Dave Atkinson and Andy "Red Spyda" Thelusma.

In recent years, Whodini still tours occasionally, and its old records still surface on pop and R&B radio, especially during old-school mix shows.