Songoftheday 9/6/18 - Sensuous motions they get my attention, stir it up easy to find the right position...
from the album X-Tra Naked (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #33 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 2
Today's song of the day comes from the dancehall reggae artist Shabba Ranks, who landed his second top-40 pop hit in America in the summer of 1992 with "Mr. Loverman". Later that year, Ranks released his next album, X-Tra Naked, which also included that past hit. The lead single from the record, though, was a more soul-oriented track, with "Slow and Sexy" featuring New Edition member Johnny Gill singing the chorus. Written by Ranks with Sly Dunbar (of Sly and Robbie), Clifton Dillon, and the Flyte Tyme production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, it would end up being Shabba's biggest and last mainstream hit so far...
"Slow and Sexy" became Shabba's third and final top-40 pop hit in January of 1993. The song climbed to #4 on Billboard's R&B chart as well. Internationally, the single peaked at #17 on the British singles chart. The next single released from X-Tra Naked, "Muscle Grip", reached #67 on the R&B chart, followed by "What'Cha Gonna Do?" featuring rapper Queen Latifah, which stopped at #62 and returned him to the top-40 in the UK at #21. At the 1993 Grammy Awards, his X-Tra Naked album won him an award for Best Reggae Album.
Ranks finished the year with "Family Affair", a track from the movie Addams Family Values featuring reggae queen Patra and singers Terri & Monica that hit #16 on Billboard's R&B chart, #84 on their pop Hot 100, and landing at #18 in Britain. After a second Rough & Ready album that stiffed, Ranks returned in 1995 with his A Mi Shabba album. From the record he scored his most recent R&B hit in America with "Let's Get It On", which got to #27 R&B and #81 pop in the States, and #22 in the UK. But backlash from the mainstream music audience from his espousing homophobic religious teaching caused him to fade away rather quickly. His most recent studio album so far is 2011's Shabba Ranks & Friends...
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And here's Shabba and Johnny performing "Slow and Sexy" on Arsenio Hall...
Up tomorrow: Hippie Hip-hopsters talk about a homeless guru.
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