Songoftheday 1/20/21 - Yo what you know about goin' out, head west red Lex TV's all up in the headrest...

 

 

"Feel So Good" - Mase

from the album Harlem World and Money Talks (Original Soundtrack) (both 1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 17

 

Today's song of the day comes from rapper Mason Betha, who records under the moniker Ma$e. Born in Florida, Mase moved to New York as a child, where he grew up and eventually came under the wing of sometimes rapper and always mogul Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, for whom he joined the Bad Boy record label. Mase had already appeared on three major pop/R&B hits in 1997; Puff Daddy's #1 hit "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down", Brian McKnight's "You Should Be Mine", and most notably, the late Notorious B.I.G.'s #1 hit "Mo Money Mo Problems", where his verses were more memorable than either Puff's or Biggie's. With all that exposure, it was a sure thing when he released his own debut single "Feels So Good". With an uncredited vocal on the "hook" (more hook than chorus) from Kelly Price, and Combs appearing in the music video, the track played like an advertisement for the label over a looped sample of Kool & The Gang's "Hollywood Swinging", along with the chorus from the Miami Sound Machine's "Bad Boy" which gave the track a familiar and upbeat vibe. The track was also used in the movie Money Talks, where it became the second top-40 hit from the soundtrack after the Refugee All-Stars' "Avenues"...

"Feel So Good" became Mase's first pop hit as a lead artist, reaching the top ten in December of 1997. The song also climbed to #5 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, while topping their Rap Singles list for six weeks. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in New Zealand (#9) and the UK (#10). Mase's debut album, Harlem World, was released in October of 1997, and topped both the Billboard 200 and R&B albums sales charts, going on to sell over four million copies. 

Besides the two songs that made the American pop top-40 from the Money Talks soundtrack, a bunch of other cuts got some notice as well. British singer Lisa Stansfield's "The Real Thing" (my favorite song on the album) topped the chart in Spain and went to #9 in the UK. Canadian dance music queen Deborah Cox's "Things Just Ain't The Same" (a close second) reached #22 on Billboard's R&B chart, #56 on the pop Hot 100, and went all the way to #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Play tally. Lil' Kim and Andrea Martin's title theme "Money Talks", a Timbaland production, wasn't released as a commercial single, but got enough urban radio airplay to make it to #40 on the R&B Airplay component of that chart. And Mary J. Blige's remake of DeBarge's "A Dream" spent over a half-year on the R&B Airplay list, peaking at #16. 

(6/10)

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And here's Mase performing live at the NBA All-Star Weekend in 1997...

and lastly, at the World Music Awards...

Up tomorrow: Texan trio takes the speed down.