Robbed hit of the week 7/12/21 - Mia X and Charlie Wilson's "Whatcha Wanna Do?"...

 

 

"Whatcha Wanna Do?" - Mia X featuring Charlie Wilson

from the album Mama Drama (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #41 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from rapper Mia X (Young), who grew up in New Orleans, where she eventually came under the wing of rapper and label mogul Master P (Percy Miller). Originally a part of Miller's No Limit rap collective TRU, which began in 1992 and Mia X joined in 1994 before their first charting album True. She also released her first solo album on the label, Good Girl Gone Bad, in 1995 as well, but that set went unnoticed. Her second disc with TRU, Tru 2 Da Game, became a much bigger success, reaching the top ten on the Billboard 200 (#8) and R&B Albums (#2) charts, and landed her first credited singles hit, featuring on "I Always Feel Like (Somebody's Watching Me)" at the beginning of 1997 (#27 R&B/#71 Pop). Later that year, Mia released her second album Unlady Like, which broke her as a solo artist, reaching the top-40 on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #21, and climbing all the way to #2 on the R&B Albums list. From the record the track "The Party Don't Stop" featuring Master P and Foxy Brown made the R&B Airplay top-40 at #38. Then, Mia X was on Master P's single "Make 'Em Say Uhhh!", which reached the top 20 on the pop and R&B charts.

That built her exposure for Mia X's third release in 1998, Mama Drama. The lead single from the set, "Whatcha Wanna Do?", was squarely aimed at the mainstream urban radio market, with Charlie Wilson of funk titans The Gap Band on vocals. The song, written by Mia and Charlie, recreates the Gap Band's "Yearning For Your Love" for the chorus as Mia delivers the female version of LL Cool J's love-rap groove, but turned on its head, as she confronts a straying or inattentive lover with an ultimatum. The result was the most accessible big single No Limit Records released. And for the music video, Wilson brings along his Gap Band brothers for the ride...

While "Whatcha Wanna Do?" became Mia X's first top-40 hit on Billboard magazine's R&B chart at #32, the single stopped one notch from the pop top-40 in November of 1998 (a week before the trade bible allowed albums cuts with no sales to make the chart). Certainly the single would've made the grade had that change been delayed for a month or so. It also climbed to #4 on Billboard's Rap Singles chart. The Mama Drama album, released in October of that year, made it to #7 on the Billboard 200 sales chart, and #3 on the R&B albums list. 

Despite the success, it would be Mia X's final lead single and album to make the charts. She only popped on one more time as a guest on Master P's "Hot Boys and Girls", which stalled down at #87 on the R&B list in 1999. Since then, Mia mostly withdrew from the music business, only emerging here and there on indie single releases. She has been more prevalent in the culinary world, writing a popular cookbook. 

 

As for Wilson, this would be his first decent "comeback" single since the Gap Band's big heyday in the 1980s. He will finally make the SOTD series as a featured performer in due time. 

(6/10)