Songoftheday 6/22/21 - Ayo we light a candle tun laps around the english channel, Neptunes I got a cockerspaniel...

 

 

"Superthug (What What)" - Noreaga

from the album N.O.R.E. (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #36 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 6

 

Today's song of the day comes from rapper Noreaga, who was born Victor Santiago Jr. in New York City. In the mid-1990's, dubbing himself after the newsworthy dictator in Panama, Noreaga joined with Queens-based rapper Kiam Holley, aka "Capone". The christened Capone-N-Noreaga released their first album The War Report in 1997. The first single, the double-release "Illegal Life" and "Stick You",  placed at #84 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart in 1996. That was followed by "T.O.N.Y. (Top Of New York)", which became the duo's highest-charting R&B single at #56, and almost made the pop Hot 100 list, "bubbling under" at #103. The last release from The War Report, the Luther Vandross/New Edition-sampling "Closer", also bubbled under the Hot 100 at #111, rose to #63 at R&B, and was their first top ten hit on Billboard's Rap Singles chart at #9. 

The duo's success was temporarily derailed as Capone went to jail, and Santiago continued as a solo act, releasing his first solo song "Blood Money (Part 2)" featuring New York rap powerhouse Nas from the soundtrack to the movie Ride, which popped on to the R&B chart at #86. Noreaga followed with his first solo album N.O.R.E. in the summer of 1998. The title track "N.O.R.E." was released as the hype lead single. It climbed to #59 on the R&B chart, and again "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #112. But it would be the second offering from the album that would break Noreaga in a big way. 

"Superthug (What What)", written by Santiago with the up and rising production team the Neptunes (Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams), indistiguishingly sampled the Blondie disco classic "Heart Of Glass" giving Debbie Harry and Chris Stein writing credit. Dominated by the "what what" percussive hook that permeates the record (since "superthug" isn't even in the lyrics), the track has the rapper setting himself apart, and possibly alluding to Capone's legal troubles in lines like "You hate the law, n***a break it, I don't care
And when ya get caught, remember that I don't care", while also name-checking "country grammar" years before Nelly. The extravagant music video took Noreaga to the Arabian desert, with lot of girls and camels...

"Superthug" became Noreaga's first top-40 pop hit in October of 1998. The song also climbed to #15 on Billboard's R&B chart, and topped their Rap Singles list for a week. Internationally, the single was a minor hit in Germany at #74 and the UK at #91. The N.O.R.E. album, released in July of that year, topped Billboard's R&B Albums chart, and crested at #3 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a million copies. He will be back on this series.

(5/10)

 

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Here's Noreaga performing "Superthug" live in 2012...

 

 Up tomorrow: R&B group seeks the romantic bottom.