Songfacts®:

• "Principal's Office" was Young MC's follow-up to his hit "Bust A Move," using his same lively, lighthearted storytelling style. In "Bust A Move" he overcomes a series of mishaps to find some luck with the ladies; "Principal's Office" is set in high school, where he keeps getting in trouble. That one doesn't have a happy ending - he tries to pass a note to a girl he likes, but the teacher intercepts it and reads it to the class. Now he has some humiliation to take to his usual trip to the principal's office.
• The song got some airplay because "Bust A Move" was such a banger, but it didn't have much impact and faded fast. Young MC was 22 when it was released, so we knew he wasn't really in high school. That wasn't a problem back when Chuck Berry was in his 30s and singing about school, but this one came off very juvenile and had an audience that was much more limited. It was territory that DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince had already explored, and there were also rappers at this time who really were in school, like Another Bad Creation.
• The piano groove on this song is a sample of a 1969 song by Lee Michaels called "Who Could Want More." There's also a drum sample from "La-La Means I Love You" by The Delfonics.
• The opening dialogue ("Normally if I can help it I don't spend a lot of time in a principal's office") comes from a comedy album by Don Lonie called Don Lonie Talks With Teenagers.
• "Principal's Office" did spend one week in the Top 40, peaking at #33, but that wasn't enough to scrub the "one-hit wonder" tag from Young MC, who will always be most associated with "Bust A Move." He also charted with "I Come Off" and "That's the Way Love Goes," and he co-wrote Tone Loc's hits "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina."
• Young MC wrote this song with the same guys he wrote "Bust A Move" with: Matt Dike and Michael Ross. They were the bosses at his record label, Delicious Vinyl.