Robbed Hit of the week 6/28/21 - Brandy's "Top Of The World"...

 

 

"Top Of The World" - Brandy featuring Mase

from the album Never Say Never (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #44

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from singer/actress Brandy, who had score the longest-running #1 of 1998 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with her Verzuz-ready duet with Monica, "The Boy Is Mine".  While Monica followed that massive hit up with another #1 single, "The First Night", in the fall of 1998, Brandy's record company Atlantic decided to hold back the commercial retail release of her next song promoted to radio, "Top Of The World", hoping to goose sales of the Never Say Never album. Featuring rapper Mase, giving her some Puff Daddy carryover, the song was written by producer Rodney Jerkins along with brother Fred, Leshawn Daniels, Isaac Phillips, Tye-V Turman. Mase also gets writingcredit for his cameo, which leads off the record, before Brandy coos generic lyrics about being tough at the top of her career, and how no one understands her (though five other people wrote this). She fits in the groove, but there isn't a bit of rawness or emotion in her delivery on this, probably on instruction to fit in with the neo-R&B of the day...

While "Top Of The World" climbed up to #4 on Billboard magazine's R&B Airplay chart, the track stalled right under the pop top-40 on the pop airplay list in September of 1998. Perhaps a single release, especially with Mase's clout and a separate remix featuring Fat Joe and the late Big Pun would have helped it clear that hurdle. Internationally, that wasn't a problem in Britain, helping it match "The Boy Is Mine" to be her highest-charting single in the UK at #2. It also made the top-40 in Iceland (#3), New Zealand (#11), Canada (#22), France (#39), and Australia (#39). Brandy will be back soon, though...

(5/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's Brandy appearing on Top Of The Pops in the UK with a screened-in Mase...

The pair performing "Top Of The World" live at the MTV Movie Awards in 1998...

Next up, on her tour behind the album in 1999...

 For the Soul Train Awards, she performed the "remix" version with Fat Joe and Big Punisher...

and lastly, reuniting with Mase in 2016 again at the Soul Train Awards...