In tracing the
multiplicity of influences present in
Tone Loc's music, no specific identification of a source, however minor, is unimportant to a broader understanding of his
aesthetic intent. As such:
The thick, immediately pleasing guitar part of his hit single "Funky Cold Medina," released in 1989, has been authoritatively placed: it comes, with some structural alteration, from Foreigner's 1978 single "Hot Blooded." As a recontextualized fragment of sound, it supports the song's rhythmic development and provides a firm background for Loc's lyrical inventions.
As to the thematic implications, Foreigner's song concerns the interaction between the lead singer (Lou Gramm) and a girl of indeterminate age and origin, and as a declaration of sexual desire fits in perfectly with the tone of "Funky Cold Medina," a narration of several sexually-charged anecdotes. It expands the meaning of the song by connecting it to a longer, cross-cultural thread of sexual conquest, and broadens the song’s demographic appeal by associating Tone Loc’s travails with those of old English men.