Songoftheday 1/17/22 - Me and my people be rollin' scheming on you and your homies...

 

 

"U Know What's Up" - Donell Jones

from the album Where I Wanna Be (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 18

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Donell Jones, who grew up in Chicago before being signed to Babyface and L.A. Reid's label LaFace as a songwriter, producer, and artist. In the spring of 1996, Jones put out his debut single "In The Hood". Previewing his first album My Heart, the song climbed to #21 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, while popping on to the pop Hot 100 at #79. Jones followed that up with a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Knocks Me Off My Feet", which rose to #14 on Billboard's R&B chart and nearly made the pop top-40 at #49.  

 

Three years after his debut, Donell returned with his sophomore effort Where I Wanna Be. In May of 1999, months before the release of the album, a new single "Shorty (Got Her Eyes On Me)" was released, but it relatively stiffed, only reaching #80 on the R&B Singles chart, though eventually it would be an international hit a year later, going to #19 in the UK and #30 in New Zealand. That summer, a second release from the record would become Donell's biggest success. "U Know What's Up", written by production team the Untouchables (Eddie Ferrell and Darren Lighty) along with Clifton Lighty, Anthony Hamilton, Belewa Muhammad, and Delvis Damon, was a slice of neo-soul that had the nice retro chord-changes touch, as Jones praises his woman, being smooth but slipping in some racy verses like...

Peep her thighs and I'm zoning
Right around two in the morning
Looking fly with the sun dress on
I think I feel a bone coming on...

 

The video and single version of the track featured Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes from the group TLC, whose rap bridge gives the record the punch it needs, and the result put Donell in the sweet spot between Usher and Maxwell...

 

 

"U Know What's Up" went to the top ten on the American pop chart in December of 1999. The song was massive on urban radio, spending two months (eight weeks) at #1 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart, while getting to #4 on the older-skewing Adult R&B radio list. Internationally, the single peaked at #2 in the UK and reaching the top ten in Belgium (#4F) and Ireland (#10), while making the top-40 in the Netherlands (#28), New Zealand (#30), and Iceland (#34). The Where I Wanna Be album, released in August of that year, rose to #35 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, coming one week short of spending a year on the list, and peaked at #6 on the R&B Albums chart, going on to sell over a million copies. Donell and the album will return to the series.

 

(7/10)

 

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

 

Here's Jones performing "U Know What's Up" on Live At The Apollo in 2000...

 

 and lastly, at the MOBO Awards in England...

Up tomorrow: This Latina expects the evening.