You ever heard a song on an artist’s album, and wanted it to be the next video, or the song they played on the radio? Well, around the mid-’90s after I got my turntables and went record-coppin’ crazy, I did the same. I always kept up on what all the new singles were, but as I stayed up on those, very rarely was I buying full-length albums. When I did get the albums, being the music nerd I was, I’d try to predict what the forthcoming singles were gonna be. Sometimes, I was correct (D’Angelo‘s “Lady” and DMX‘s “Ruff Ryders Anthem” being two correct guesses I made)… other times, not so. In this installment of the AllTime8, I drop eight instances in which I was wrong, but perhaps should’ve been right. You be the judge…
8- Jay-Z feat. Lil’ Kim & Puff Daddy “I Know What Girls Like” from the album In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1997): Yeah, I know… this joint catches a lotta flak, and is usually considered one of the songs that turned Jay back a few notches when his second album dropped. In all honesty, call me nutso, but I liked this shit. Since his plan was to score a big hit single to blow his name up further that year, I’d have put money on this one before that suck-ass single and video he did run with. With the Bad Boy influence (which practically guaranteed extended airplay in ’97) and the Boogie Boys-sampled track, “I Know What Girls Like” coulda been the one to make it happen… “Sunshine” be damned.
7- Digable Planets “Jettin’” from the album Blowout Comb (1994): So I guess that after “Cool Like Dat” blew up and had DP as the face of the brief “jazz rap” trend, people figured they’d come back out with that same insect/planet shit on the second album. They decided to go in a whole ‘nother direction, and had a more street/sociopolitical angle in their music, which didn’t grab the same success they had the first time out. There wasn’t much on the album that appealed to ’94′s popular tastes, and they prob’ly gave less than a damn, but “Jettin’” was about the closest it coulda got.
6- SWV feat. Erick Sermon “On & On”, from the album New Beginning (1996): The second album by the Sisters With Voices wasn’t as major as their first joint It’s About Time, but it still did respectably well, with “You’re The One” and “Use Your Heart” anchoring it. For the third single, they went with some bland-ass cut called “It’s All About U”, which just didn’t do it on any level. I mean, that shit flopped like a fish outta water. Who knows if the Erick Sermon-produced “On & On” woulda done any better, but I’d like to imagine it had more of a fighting chance than that one did.
5- Tha Dogg Pound “I Don’t Like To Dream About Gettin’ Paid”, from the album Dogg Food (1995): The homies Kurupt and Daz dropped a solid album in Dogg Food, back when Death Row and G-Funk were still poppin’. Single-wise, it’s probably most notable for “New York, New York” and its video where Snoop came thru and crushed the buildings. But after “New York…” made the impact it did, Death Row stopped promotion on the album and never followed up with another single to take it home. There’s one track that I feel coulda pushed at least another .5 to go with the 2 million they sold- the Lionel Richie-sampling, Nate Dogg-featured “I Don’t Like To Dream…”. It definitely woulda required a clean version, but this shit was too breezy and catchy to just sit on the album.
4- DJ Quik “Summer Breeze” from the album Safe + Sound (1995): …speakin’ of breezy. When I heard Quik’s Safe & Sound in early ’95, I was positive this would be the single that’d drop in time for summer. Back when joints like this were almost guaranteed hits, it woulda been right on time for Quik and his perm to be all over the TV during the hot months. Contrary to my belief, Mr. Blake wasn’t even rockin’ with his label Profile Records by the time summer rolled around. He was affiliating himself more with Death Row, and even with the album going gold, the promo for it was almost non-existent. Thus, no single or video for this one… ah, well.
3- Faith Evans “Fallin’ In Love”, from the album, Faith (1995): As a track from Faye-Faye’s debut album that I recall getting airplay even without being a single, “Fallin’ In Love” woulda worked. Not that “You Used To Love Me” and “Soon As I Get Home” didn’t pop, but the third joint “Ain’t Nobody” came off a lil’ weak by comparison, and it didn’t do as well as the other two. Who knows what Puff n’nem were thinking- maybe the (at the time) overused Patrice Rushen sample wouldn’t stand out enough, perhaps? Either way, “Fallin’…” shoulda been the pick. Also notable (to me at least) for Faith sayin’ “aight, fuck it” as the song fades out.
2- LL Cool J feat. New Edition “Candy” from the album Phenomenon (1997): There’s not a lot good to be said about L’s ’97 album, as he seemed to be way caught up in the “shiny suit era”, and resulted in some pretty derivative shit. Of course, there was “4-3-2-1″ and all that madness that followed, so things didn’t turn out too bad, but I think it’s safe to say this album was a miss. Still, there was one track that coulda fared better than his other single choices- “Candy”, with the recently-reunited New Edition. It wasn’t the hardest joint in the world, but it was true to the LL that always works better than whatever else he tries to experiment with.
1- Christion “Midnight X-ta-C” from the album Ghetto Cyrano (1997): Kenny Ski and Allen Anthony dropped a good damn album in ’97… too bad it was on Roc-A-Fella. Dame, Jay, and Biggs were as bad at marketing R&B acts as they were good at pushing rappers, so Christion’s Ghetto Cyrano fell on far less ears than it should have. I didn’t even catch wind of it until hearing their tracks on the Streets Is Watching soundtrack in ’98, then borrowing the album from a girl I knew. “Midnight X-ta-C”, with a sample from one of my favorite old school beats, was my shit. It prob’ly coulda been the shit to more people had it dropped as an official single.
But hey, coulda-woulda-shoulda, right? Hindsight’s always 20/20, whereas foresight is always up for debate. There’s whole careers I was wrong about, so maybe I was wrong about some of these. I still rock with these, even if they weren’t given the full single/video treatment, and now, so can you. Who loves ya, babe?
-D!
Yo….D! Man, that Christion album was the most tragically slept-on album. I hate that those brothers didn’t become more successful as they were EXCELLENT vocalists.
That Christion wasn’t no bullshit… ‘Full of Smoke’ is still epic too. Them dudes were doin’ their thing- highly slept on music there.
-D!
Ay yo Sunshine is a great song! Lol. Babyface did the chorus. Babyface! Jigga and the coloured lights and the shiny suits? No bueno. Lol
LMAO… the song had me a lil’ sick, but the video killed me. That dude really thought that was the way to go, and who could blame him in ’97, but got-damn. Jay came outta that lookin’ like a bit of a clown, and had the circus video to match, haha.
-D!
I totally agree with the Faith and SWV points because I thought the same thing once listening to their albums. Especially the SWV joint. There was so much shit that was better than what they picked.
And Faith. I love Faith. I LOVE Faith. One of my fave female singers. #thatisall. lol
Good shit tho, D!
Faith… she’s consistently dropped good shit… but that first album tho’? I liked the singles, but I had to fukk wit’ the whole thing after I heard ‘Fallin’ In Love’.
And yeah, the SWV joint wasn’t doin’ it. I remember goin’ to the record store, and the way it was set up, you could take the records out and listen to ‘em first… I played that shit, kindly put it back in the sleeve, and put that shit right back on the shelf, haha… not the way to go.
-D!
Faith can sing. Love Faith. She is so underrated as a vocalist. Biggie’s legacy has outshined her own.
She came up here last summer for a concert, and was drunker(or coked out) than my Jamaican uncle at a cookout. She was swearing and stumbling, and the DJ kept messing up the cues. But when she actually sang into the mic, it was awesome.
Her first album was heavily slept on, and the cut you picked was fire!!
Woooow… Faith gettin’ twisted and pullin’ early-90s MJB’s on stage? That I’da been entertained to see, lol.
That album was strong as all hell for real… I remember her being advertised and announced as ‘Biggie Smalls’ wife’ for like months, but she def. grew into her own when tht album had its run.
-D!
Lol I thought i was the only who thought the track Tha Dogg Pound “I Don’t Like To Dream About Gettin’ Paid should of been released. Deathrow was known to not promote their artist well enough and the worst part is this track was a certified banger with a hot hook back in the 90s.
Yeah man… I mean, they prob woulda had to clean version it and whatnot, but it woulda been a slick follow-up.
-D!
fallin in love=i need you tonight by junior mafia? mabe thats why they didnt bother…
and i cosign with you About Christion