Songoftheday 10/22/21 - No matter what ya'll say or do we gotta get this money, watch out playa we come for you take all of your honeys...

 

 

"Did You Ever Think" - R. Kelly featuring Nas

from the album R. (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 6

 

Today's song is from singer/songwriter/producer/convicted sex felon R. Kelly, who's third solo album R. had already spun off a #1 pop hit with his duet with Celine Dion, "I'm Your Angel", and the  top-40 follow-up "When A Woman's Fed Up" at the start of 1999. At the same time, the album track "Half On A Baby" got enough radio airplay to spend a few weeks on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, peaking at #61, while making the top-40 in the UK (#16), New Zealand (#18), the Netherlands (#19), and Germany (#38). The next single in America from the set would be "Did You Ever Think". Written and produced by Kelly and the Trackmasters (Jean-Claude "Poke" Olivier and Sam "Tone" Barnes) with Tone providing the spoken chorus on the album, the song is your run of the mill money brag about his wealth and success over a sample of Curtis Mayfield's soul nugget from 1973 "Right On For The Darkness".  It's basically a song to give the finger to his earlier critics, flaunting his riches and power in the music industry, and at the time, he could credibly do it. For the single remix, Kelly brought on rapper Nas for a guest spot. Nas has scored a top-40 pop hit of his own with "Street Dreams" in the beginning of 1994, and returned in the spring of 1997 as a guest on female R&B group Allure's debut hit "Head Over Heels". The result is a downplayed showing, displaying smoothness over the minor-key backdrop...

"Did You Ever Think" became the third top-40 pop hit from R., and the third overall for Nas, in June of 1999. The song also climbed to #8 on Billboard's R&B chart. Internationally, the single was a top-40 hit in the UK (#20), the Netherlands (#24), and Germany (#26). Both Kelly and Nas will be back to this series.

(4/10)

Up tomorrow: It's not always a given for this emancipated singer.