Songoftheday 7/3/20 - It's going down fade to blackstreet, the homies got rb collab' creations...
From the album Another Level (1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (four weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 26
Today's song of the day comes from the R&B group Blackstreet, whose self-titled debut album spun off a pair of pop hits with "Booti Call" and the top ten ballad "Before I Let You Go". Despite the success, half the group quit, with Dave Hollister and Levi Little being replaced by Mark Middleton and Eric Williams. In 1996 the new lineup still led by producer, singer, and new jack swing king Teddy Riley returned with their sophomore effort Another Level. The lead single, "No Diggity", was a swinging jam built on a tweaked sample of Bill Withers' "Grandma's Hands". Withers gets a co-write credit on the record along with Riley, bandmate Chauncey "Black" Hannibal, co-producer William Stewart, and Dr. Dre, who guests in with a rap cameo as he was exiting Death Row Records. The song, originally pitched to Riley's mentored group Guy, ended up becoming his own act's biggest success. Rapper Queen Pen also makes an appearance though not on the official chart credits...
"No Diggity" spent a month (four weeks) at #1 in November of 1996, lingering in the top-40 for half a year. The song also did the same on Billboard magazine's R&B chart. Internationally, the single topped the charts in New Zealand and Iceland, and reached the top ten in Denmark (#2), Sweden (#3), Norway (#5), the Netherlands (#7),the UK (#9), Belgium (#9W/#10F), and Ireland (#10). It also made the top-40 in Switzerland (#11), Germany (#14), Austria (#16), Australia (#21), and France (#25). The Another Level album went to #3 on Billboard's Top 200 sales chart, going on to sell over 4 million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 1998, "No Diggity" won the award for Best R&B Duo/Group Vocal Performance.
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Here's Blackstreet appearing on the kids sketch show All That in 1996...
and again on their episode of MTV Unplugged...
And the NAACP Awards in NYC last year...
Up tomorrow: A not-so "brand new" soul band identifies their masculinity.
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