Songoftheday 1/11/18 - It's sort of like well another way to call a cat a kitten, it's five little letters that are missing here...
from the album Naughty By Nature (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 18
Today's song of the day comes from the rap group Naughty By Nature, who got their start in the city of East Orange, New Jersey in the mid 1980s. After an album as "The New Style" went nowhere, and with a little help from new label-mate Queen Latifah on Tommy Boy Records, the trio of Treach, Vin Rock, and DJ Kay Gee released their first disc as Naughty By Nature in 1991. The first single from the record was a fun novelty-style take on cheating, "O.P.P.", that cleverly used a sample from the Jackson Five's "ABC" to ground Treach's rap about what the abbrevation stands for (aka "Other People's P****...). From the get go "arm me with harmony" line, this was the rap party record for the winter of 1991...
"O.P.P." became Naughty By Nature's first pop hit, reaching the top ten in November of 1991. The single also climbed to #5 on Billboard's R&B chart, and spent a month at #1 on their Rap Singles list. The 12" remix landed at #7 on the magazine's Dance Club Play tally as well. Internationally, the track went to #6 in Switzerland, and got into the top-40 in New Zealand (#11), Germany (#25), the Netherlands (#27), Australia (#31), and the UK (#35). Naughty By Nature were nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Duo/Group Performance, losing out to DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's "Summertime".
The trio's second single from their debut album, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright", climbed to #12 on the R&B chart, but stalled down at #53 on the pop Hot 100 (in my opinion, it's their best record). A third release, "Uptown Anthem", peaked at #27 on the R&B list. But the group would return to mainstream radio with their next album.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the trio appearing live on the Arsenio Hall show, and the rap interplay between Treach and Vin is even better than on the single...
Here's the alternative "Sunny Dayz" remix, one of the two that helped the record reach the top ten on the dance chart...
Back to the guys live at the Soul Train Music Awards in 1992...
Finally, the boys reuniting with their mentor Queen Latifah on her TV show in 2013...
Up tomorrow: Dance-pop group calls up Ms. Summer?
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