Songoftheday 4/4/21 - I live my life as a thug but girl you know I need ya, each and every woman that I meet damn they don't wanna be ya...

 

 

"I Got The Hook Up!" - Master P featuring Sons Of Funk

from the albums I Got The Hook Up! (Original Soundtrack) and The Game Of Funk (both 1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 17

 

Today's song of the day comes from rapper and record label head Master P (Percy Smith), whose breakthrough sixth album Ghetto D had spun off who top-40 pop hits with "I Miss My Homies" and "Make 'Em Say Uhh!", the latter reaching the top 20 in the spring of 1998. Also, Percy was a guest rapper on Montell Jordan's #2 pop hit "Let's Ride", his biggest pop success. His No Limit record label was also branching out into film, as they released the movie I Got The Hook Up, which starred Master P along with rapper Ice Cube and comedian Anthony Johnson. The low-budget flick about hustling phones and such ended up making three times the amount it cost, and produced a soundtrack that topped Billboard magazine's R&B albums list. The title song featured R&B vocal group Sons Of Funk, who had scored a minor hit on the Hot 100 pop chart a year earlier at #97 with "Pushin' Inside You", from the label's previous movie release I'm 'Bout It. "I Got The Hook Up!", was released as a commercial single as well. Written by Miller with Rico Crowder and Lorenzo Chew from the Sons of Funk and producer Craig Lawson (KLC), the track was formatted as a love ballad, but somehow Percy felt the need to insert his "trademark" "Uhhh!" grunts in the middle of the chorus, which derails the whole mood. But his fans didn't mind, and it became his third big hit. It seriously sounds like the smoother of 2Pac's tracks, except for the maniacal groans. The music video has Master P wooing a woman from under her parents' wishes. The high intentions remind me of the equally horrid "If I Could Teach The World" from Bone Thugs-n-Harmony"...

"I Got The Hook Up" matched "Make 'Em Say Uhh!" for his highest pop ranking as a lead artist in June of 1998. The song also climbed to #11 on Billboard's R&B chart, and topped their Rap Singles list for a week. The I Got The Hook Up soundtrack came in at #3 on the Billboard 200 sales chart, going on to move over three million copies. Meanwhile, the Sons of Funk's debut album The Game Of Funk, which included this song, managed to get to #44 on the albums sales chart (and #14 at R&B) without any more singles success from it, though they will appear here again with the Master.

(1/10)

Up tomorrow: Country teen is seeing things differently.