Songoftheday 11/18/17 - It's me the brand new intelligent black woman Y-O-Y-O, which is Yo-Yo but I'm not to be played like I was made by Mattel...

"You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo" - Yo-Yo featuring Ice Cube
from the album Make Way For The Motherlode (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #36 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 3

Today's song of the day comes from rapper Yolanda Whitaker, aka Yo-Yo, who grew up in the Compton section of the Los Angeles metro area. Another hip-hop artist from the same town, Ice Cube from N.W.A., helped Yo-Yo land a deal and featured her on his interpolation of James Brown's "It's A Man's World" on his debut solo album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted in 1990. A year later, Ice Cube helped produce Yo-Yo's own first record Make Way For The Motherlode. He also co-wrote with Yo-Yo the first single from the set, "You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo", which he made a rap cameo on. It not only turned out to be her breakout hit, but Cube's first solo chart hit as well...

"You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo" became Yo-Yo's sole top-40 pop hit in July of 1991. The single also climbed to #11 on Billboard's R&B chart. Her second single, "Ain't Nobody Better", which was based on the Rufus and Chaka Khan classic, climbed to #30 on the R&B chart, but missed on the pop Hot 100 altogether.

A year later, Yo-Yo's sophomore effort Black Pearl arrived, and it spun off two minor R&B hits, including "Home Girl Don't Play Dat" which peaked at #53. She returned in 1993 with You Better Ask Somebody, which had another collaboration with Ice Cube, "The Bonnie & Clyde Theme", that climbed to #37 on the R&B chart and popped on to the Hot 100 at #72. The next year, she was featured on reggae-rap artist Patra's hit single "Romantic Call", which went to #35 on the R&B chart, made the Dance Club Play list at #21, and was her most recent Hot 100 pop appearance at #55. Yo-Yo's latest chart hit came in 1997 when she guested on soul trio Levert's "True Dat" (R&B #52). She's since appeared in movies and TV shows, and is married to the mayor of the Detroit suburb of Highland Park.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's Yo-Yo and Ice Cube appearing live in concert in 1991...

Up tomorrow: Living legend needs some emotional TLC.