3 Feet High & Rising: Sikes & The New Violence Re-emerge As Normal Creatures with "Somebody's Watching Me" (Rockwell Cover)

Normal Creatures are a new Hip-Hop/Rock-leaning group hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who aren't exactly "new." Long story short, Normal Creatures once functioned as Sikes & The New Violence from 2014-20, but posted a message this past September accompanied by an image with the text "Goodbye Sikes and The New Violence. Hello Normal Creatures." Sikes explained within part of the heart-felt message, "I don't feel as though it's fair for the band to exist under the shadow of "Sikes" and I want us to be acknowledged as a collective unit..." He further explained all of Sikes & The New Violence's music released prior to 2020 will continue to exist online as such, although, a set of three singles recorded and released during Quarantine will soon be accurately re-uploaded to streaming services as Normal Creatures.


Now, just in time for Halloween, The Artist Formerly Known As Sikes & The New Violence has re-emerged as Normal Creatures with their new single, "Somebody's Watching Me." Yes, it is, in fact, an extremely well-executed cover of Rockwell's eerily infectious 1984 Motown Records single. Rockwell (or Kennedy William Gordy) is the son of Motown founder and CEO Berry Gordy, which means LMFAO's Stefan "Redfoo" Kendal Gordy is his half-brother and Skyler "Sky Blu" Austen Gordy is his nephew. Rockwell's original version of "Somebody's Watching Me," actually, features guest vocals by brothers and Motown affiliates Michael Jackson (in the chorus) and Jermaine Jackson (additional backing vocals.) However, it was very recently revealed that "Somebody's Watching Me" was almost given to a different, yet equally recognizable, singer entirely: Lenny Kravitz.


It was revealed within his recent memoir, Let Love Rule, and expounded upon in a new Rolling Stone interview. Kravitz and Kennedy Gordy first met while attending Beverly Hills High School during the early 80's. Lenny Kravitz explains, prior to releasing "Somebody's Watching Me" on Motown Records in '84, Gordy "came over to my mom's house with the first LinnDrum drum machine, which was really big and heavy and he had some sort of Roland keyboard." As Kravitz tells it, "He's like, "I got this tune for you and I think that you're really gonna dig this. And he sings me the song [begins to sing first verse] and he gets to the hook [sings hook] and I'm like, "Wow, that's good." [...] I was like, "It's really good, but it's you. You should do this, man," At that time, he wasn't thinking about himself as being an artist."


"Maybe, he was thinking more about being a producer and a writer. But he offered me this song and next thing you know, the months go by and I was like, "Holy sh*t!" I hear this song on the radio and the rest is history." Rockwell's original version of "Somebody's Watching Me" always had a bit of an underlying Synth-Funk/Rock feel and Normal Creatures only pump up the volume on that whole borderline Hip-Hop/Rock sound, as well as beefing up the haunted house/spooky vibe we all know and love. Normal Creatures' cover of "Somebody's Watching Me" is now available for FREE download on Bandcamp and streaming on YouTube. It appears as though Normal Creatures are currently wrapping up a new full-length and plan to properly re-release the aforementioned three singles, as well.