Robbed hit of the week 12/10/18 - LL Cool J's "Back Seat (Of My Jeep)"...
from the album 14 Shots To The Dome (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #42
This week's "robbed hit" comes from rapper James Smith, aka "LL Cool J", who had started off the 1990s with his huge album Mama Said Knock You Out, which landed him his first top ten pop hit with "Around The Way Girl" along with top-20 follow-up "Mama Said Knock You Out". While the latter single shut down his detractors trying to paint him for being "soft", it was "Around The Way Girl" that got LL radio love and a real entrance to the mainstream consciousness. He also dipped his feet into acting, appearing in Hollywood movies like Toys. When he returned in 1993 for his fifth studio album, it would've been the wise choice to keep following down that path. But someone instead we got 14 Shots To The Dome, an angry, disjointed album that saw him try to sound like his peers more than create his own journey. The lead single, "How I'm Comin'", had a fuzzy sample from Bobby Byrd than sounded like B-rate G-funk, and confused nearly everyone, getting to #28 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart (most likely from name recognition) and #57 on the pop Hot 100 (it was a top-40 hit in the UK at #37). The second release from the set was an ambitious single that saw both songs reach the chart. While promoted "A-side" "Pink Cookies In A Plastic Bag Getting Crushed By Buildings" would enter the R&B list first, it would be the "B-side", "Back Seat (of My Jeep)" that would go on to be more popular. Based on a sample of soul group the Detroit Emeralds on "You're Getting A Little Too Smart", which hit #10 R&B in 1973, it tries to recapture his loverboy image from his start, but goes way over the line with no shade of subtlety, which almost drive it to novelty category...
While "Back Seat (Of My Jeep)" climbed to #24 on Billboard's R&B chart, the track stopped a couple notches short of the pop top-40 in July of 1993. Meanwhile, "Pink Cookies in a Plastic Bag..." managed to get to #34 on the R&B list and #96 on the pop Hot 100 in America. A third single release, "Stand By Your Man" (not to be confused with Tammy Wynette), made it to #67 on the R&B chart while only "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #116. It was quite a stumbling block for the most popular solo rap artist from the East Coast, but he would return a couple years after with the biggest hit he would have as a lead artist on the pop chart.
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Here's the other "side" of the single, "Pink Cookies In A Plastic Bag Getting Crushed By Buildings", which definitely carried a PM Dawn-style mood to it, and I quite liked better...
And finally, LL performing "Back Seat" live at the Apollo...
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