Songoftheday 7/12/21 - From droppin' some of the hottest verses rap has ever heard, From the dope spot with the smoke Glock...

 

 

"Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" - Jay-Z

from the album Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #15 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 16

 

Today's song of the day comes from Jay-Z, who I featured yesterday with his breakthrough top-40 pop/top-ten R&B hit "Can I Get A..." , which reached its peak in the beginning of 1999. At the same time, another song from his Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life album, which was also released on the 12" vinyl single format allowing it to place on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 and R&B charts, entered the pop top-40 in the same week. But the two records are quite different from each other. "Hard Knock Life" gets its name from what it samples, namely "It's A Hard Knock Life" from the pulled-from-the-comics musical Annie. A completely novel idea for the time in any genre, using a song sung by children with rhymes about the tough life in the poor cities, it's striking in its sonics, and palatable enough for mainstream radio to even attempt to play the heavily-edited version of the single...

 

 "Hard Knock Life" crested on the pop Hot 100 in Billboard in May of 1999. The song also landed Jay-Z's second top ten R&B hit at #10, while getting to #2 on their Rap Singles list. Internationally, the single was a massive smash, reaching the top ten in the UK (#2), Iceland (#2), Norway (#4), Germany (#5), Canada (#6), Sweden (#6), the Netherlands (#6), Denmark (#6), Switzerland (#7), Ireland (#9), and New Zealand (#10).  At the Grammy Awards in 1999, "Hard Knock Life" was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance, losing out to Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy With It". 

 

The "B-side" of the delayed CD single of "Hard Knock Life",  a remix of album track "Money, Cash, Hoes", got enough R&B airplay to rise to #36 on Billboard's R&B chart, while "Bubbling Under" the pop Hot 100 at #116. The final song promoted to radio from Vol. 2, "Jigga What" featuring Amil and Big Jaz, was a rework on the set's "N***a What, N***a Who (Originator 99)" to replace the slur for airplay. That song got to #23 on the R&B chart, and #84 on the pop Hot 100 chart. Jay-Z will be back on the series.

(8/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's "Money, Cash, Hoes" featuring rappers DMX and Memphis Bleek, which was on the American CD single with "Hard Knock Life"...

Here's Jay-Z on an appearance promoting the single...

 And lastly, Jay-Z performing "Can I Get A..." and "Hard Knock Life" live...

 Up tomorrow: The debut of a pop phenomenon who's in the news right now.