Robbed hit of the week 5/11/20 - Jay-Z and Foxy Brown's "Ain't No Ni**a" / "Dead Presidents"...

"Ain't No Ni**a" / "Dead Presidents" - Jay-Z featuring Foxy Brown
from the albums The Nutty Professor (Original Soundtrack) and Reasonable Doubt (both 1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #50 (two weeks)

This week's "robbed hit" comes from hip-hop legend Jay-Z, who grew up in Brooklyn as Sean Carter before adopting his moniker, making appearance on other records and for other artists until he self-released his first single "In My Lifetime" in 1995. The following year, he started up his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records, with a couple of friends, and got indie label king Priority to distribute their output (which will contribute to its success at first). His debut album Reasonable Doubt came out in the summer of 1996, preceded by a single that included two songs radio was playing. The "A-Side", "Dead Presidents", was written by Jay-Z and produced by Ski (David Willis), and was different than the version that would eventually find itself on Reasonable Doubt. A money boasting track, it samples a song from fellow NYC rapper Nas' "The World Is Yours"...
 

But it would be the second song on the single that would soon overtake the airplay and popularity of the other. "Ain't No Ni**a", which featured rapper Foxy Brown, with the pair writing the track with producer Big Jaz (Jonathan Burks), was built on a prominent sample of the Four Tops' top ten pop hit "Ain't No Woman (Like The One I Got)", and was much more recognizable for that. It also got exposure from being included in the soundtrack to the Eddie Murphy version of the movie The Nutty Professor, where it sat with Monica's top ten "Ain't Nobody" and Case's "Touch Me, Tease Me"...

The double-sided single had the advantage of having airplay from both songs (with the second edited as "Ain't No Playa") combined with the sales, and went to #17 on Billboard's R&B chart and #4 on their Rap Singles tally. But on the official pop Hot 100, the song stopped short right in the middle of the list in June of 1996. Despite the edit it was a bit too raunchy for most of radio, but the fans sure ate it up. Internationally, the single was his first top-40 success in the UK at #31, and stalling just under it in New Zealand at #45. Follow-up single "Can't Knock The Hustle", which featured Mary J. Blige, rose to #35 on the R&B chart and #7 on rap singles, but again stopped at #73 on the pop Hot 100, though it made it to #30 in the UK and #26 in New Zealand. A third release from the record, "Feelin' It", peaked at #46 R&B, #13 Rap Singles, and scored a third Hot 100 hit at #79. The Reasonable Doubt album was his first top-40 album at #23, his last studio album not to make the top ten. It ranks in Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 Albums of the rock era. The success gave Jay-Z enough cred to hook up with influential label Def Jam, moving the Roc-A-Fella label there for the next phase of his career.

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Here's Jay-Z and Foxy Brown appearing live on Video Soul in 1996...

And another TV appearance doing both "Dead Presidents" and "Ain't No Playa"...

And finally live in concert with Foxy...