Songoftheday 11/18/19 - Player give me some brew and I might just chill, but I'm the type that like to light another joint Like Cypress Hill...

"I Got 5 On It" - Luniz
from the album Operation Stackola (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 20

Today's song of the day comes from the Oakland-based hip-hop duo Luniz, who came together in the early 1990's. Rappers Yukmouth (Jerold Ellis) and Numskull (Garrick Husbands) released the first single from their debut album Operation Stackola, "I Got 5 On It", in the spring of 1995. Built on a prominent sample of Club Nouveau's "Why You Treat Me So Bad?", the boastful player's anthem sported an undeniable hook about that "endo weed" sung by Timex Social Club's Michael Marshall...

"I Got 5 On It" became the pair's first but only hit on the American pop Hot 100 chart, reaching the top ten in September of 1995. The track peaked at #4 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, as well as rose to #2 on their Rap Singles chart. Unlike many American rap hits, though, the single was a big hit internationally, reaching the top ten in Germany (#2), the Netherlands (#2), Sweden (#2), Switzerland (#2), Norway (#2), the UK (#3), Belgium (#5F/#7W), France (#6), Ireland (#6), and Austria (#6). And Down Under, where many rap hit succeed, it did the opposite, having more modest success at #24 in New Zealand and #52 in Australia.

The second single from Operation Stackola, "Playa Hata" featuring Teddy, rose to #51 on the R&B chart and #13 on Billboard's Rap Singles chart, but only managed to "bubble under" the pop Hot 100 at #102. However the song proved a decent hit in the UK, going to #20. The album topped the R&B albums sales chart and got to #20 on the Top 200 Albums sales chart, eventually selling over a million records.

Luniz returned in the fall of 1997 with their sophomore effort, Lunitik Musik, which failed to send any singles to the charts, but still managed to sell Gold (500,000 copies) and make top ten R&B (#8) and top-40 main albums chart (#34). However, they faded from view until returning on Rap-A-Lot Records (the Geto Boys' label) in 2002 for Silver & Black, which slipped on to the R&B albums chart at #53. Their most recent release, No Pressure, came out in 2018.

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Here's Luniz appearing live at Showtime At The Apollo in 1995...

In 1998, a drum and bass remix of the song title the "Urban Takeover Remix" brought the song back to the British Top-40 at #28...

Most recently, the song was resurrected for Jordan Peele's horror movie Us earlier this year, with the song (and another remix) gracing a pivotal scene in the film...

And finally, Luniz live in concert...

Up tomorrow: Canadian country newcomer before she was the biggest thing in the genre.