MC Skat Kat

MC Skat Kat
MC Skat Kat with Paula Abdul in the 1989 music video "Opposites Attract"
Background information
Origin	United States
Genres	Hip hop
Years active	1989-1992
Labels	Virgin
Associated acts	Paula Abdul The Wild Pair

MC Skat Kat is an animated cat who appeared with Paula Abdul in the video for her song "Opposites Attract" in 1989.

Taylor Steele got the idea for Skat Kat from the Gene Kelly movie Anchors Aweigh, in which Kelly's character dances with Jerry, the mouse from the Tom and Jerry cartoon series. Taylor would originally play small gigs dressed in full cat attire, though soon after become a studio musician with the character becoming fully animated by members of the Disney and Warner Bros. animation team, working outside the studios between major projects, under the direction of Chris Bailey.

MC Skat Kat was created by Taylor Steele and performed by The Wild Pair duo of Taylor Steele and Grant Ross on "Opposites Attract". MC Skat Kat's rap was written by Romany Malco and performed by Taylor Steele, although Malco is often mistakenly credited for being the voice of the first rap, a story perpetuated by Abdul herself.Derrick 'Delite' Stevens also provided vocals for the character in the MC Skat Kat solo album.

The character released the album The Adventures of MC Skat Kat and the Stray Mob in 1991, which was a flop. Some of the songs made references to Paula Abdul and "Opposites Attract", but Abdul did not provide vocals, except for the intro in "On the Prowl", in which she was uncredited; she did, however, make an appearance in the video of "Skat Strut", the only single to be released. Despite the popularity of its music video (as it became one of the most requested on MTV), the song only reached number 96 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Another single from the solo album, "Big Time," was given its own video with revised music. The song was labeled as "Big Time (Animation Mix)" on the Captive Sampler. The video, directed by Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger, was completed in January 1992 and appears on Patterson + Reckinger's Vimeo channel. The original animation was done by Chris Bailey, Tom Sito and Eric Goldberg, who at the time was the lead animator of the Genie character in Disney's Aladdin feature film.