Songoftheday 4/29/21 - I'm gone penthouse suite Penthouse freaks, in-house beats French comtesse ten thou' piece...

 

 

"Still Not A Player" - Big Punisher featuring Joe

from the album Capital Punishment (1998)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #24 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 19

Today's song of the day comes from Christopher Rios, a rapper who recorded under the moniker Big Punisher, or "Big Pun" for short. Born in the Bronx, Rios had a rough childhood, and his depression fed into an eating disorder that turned him from an athlete to threateningly obese. However, he used that to his advantage, dubbing himself "Big Punisher". He hooked up with fellow overweight rapper Fat Joe, who included Pun on his sophomore effort Jealous One's Envy, which made the top ten on Billboard magazine's R&B albums chart in 1995. He also appeared on Fat Joe's "B-side" single "Fire Water" with the Wu-Tang Clan's Reakwon and rapper Armageddon, which popped on to the pop chart at #76 in 1996. The next year, his feature on the Beatnuts single "Off The Books" put him on the R&B list in Billboard for the first time at #52. In 1998 he finally released his own debut album Capital Punishment. The lead single from the record was "I'm Not A Player", which was a decent R&B hit, scaling to #19, while placing on the pop Hot 100 at #57. For the second single released, producer Jerome Foster reworked that initial track by mashing it up with the groove from neo-soul singer Joe's "Don't Wanna Be A Player", which made the pop top-40 in the spring of 1997. With Joe's vocals on this new mix, and the piano riff taken from Brenda Russell's jazz-soul nugget "Little Bit Of Love", and the result was a brighter-sounding record that mainstream radio could get on board with. With it's word-twisting "I'm not a player but I crush a lot" seeps into your brain whether or not you want it to, and Big Pun found himself with his biggest success...

 

"Still Not A Player" became Big Pun's sole top-40 pop hit in August of 1998. It actually got around Billboard's rules at the time against airplay-only hits by being released on just a 12" vinyl single. The song scaled to #6 on Billboard's R&B chart, while rising to #3 on their Rap Songs list.  Internationally, the single made the top-40 in New Zealand at #37, while a later release in the UK in 2003 made it pop in at #86. The Capital Punishment album, released in April of 1998, topped Billboard's R&B Albums chart for two weeks, while coming in at #5 on their all-genre Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to move over a million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 1999, Capital Punishment was nominated for Best Rap Album, losing out to Jay-Z's Vol 2...Hard Knock Life set. 

A third single from the album, "You Came Up" featuring rapper Noreaga, stopped at #49 on the R&B chart, while only "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #103. In 1999, Big Pun joined Fat Joe and other rappers in the original incarnation of the supergroup Terror Squad, whose eponymous album went to #22 on the Billboard 200 and #4 on the R&B Albums list. He also was recording his second album, Yeeeah Baby, but didn't make its release date in April of 2000, succumbing to the complications of his weight gain (which ballooned to over 600 pounds) that February. The set ended up going even higher on the Billboard 200, spending a week at #3, while landing a second #1 R&B disc. Lead single "It's So Hard", featuring neo-soul singer Donell Jones, rose to #19 on the R&B Songs chart, and #75 on the pop Hot 100. Also that year, Fat Joe and the late rapper had a #1 dance hit as featured guests on Jennifer Lopez' single "Feelin' So Good", which also got to #51 on the pop Hot 100. In 2001, a compilation of hits and unreleased tracks called Endangered Species earned Big Pun a third top ten placing at #7 (#2 on the R&B Albums list). A single from the set, "How We Roll" with singer Ashanti, was a minor R&B hit at #53.

(6/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's Pun and Fat Joe making a live TV appearance in 1998...

Up tomorrow: Glistening R&B singer has some caution.