Songoftheday 2/20/22 - No time for playa hatin' Mack paper chasing, kicked out the substation to the hip hop nation...
"You Can Do It" - Ice Cube featuring Mack 10 and Ms. Toi
from the albums Next Friday (Original Soundtrack) and War & Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc) (2000)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #35 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 2
Today's song comes from rapper turned actor Ice Cube, whose fifth studio album War & Peace Vol. 1 (The War Disc) had spun off a top-40 crossover hit at the start of 1999 with "Pushin' Weight". Later that year, Ice Cube (real name O'Shea Jackson) starred in the movie Next Friday, the sequel to his popular turn on the urban comedy Friday from 1995. Along with his acting turn, he contributed the first song on the soundtrack which would be the first single to gain traction on the charts. "You Can Do It" reunited the rapper with Mack 10, who together were two-thirds of the hip-hop "supergroup" Westside Connection. Mack 10 (real name Dedrick Rolison) also had a successful solo career, and had landed a top-40 pop hit of his own in the fall of 1997 with "Backyard Boogie", and then was featured on Warren G's top-40 hit "I Want It All" in the late fall of 1999. The pair brought in newcomer Ms. Toi (real name Toikeon Parhan), who provided the hard female counterpoint of what is the "chorus" meant for the clubs. The record's groove is definitely "stickier" than what "Pushin' Weight" had, and it helped the brag rap go down a bit easier. There's even a subtle softening of his image despite the cursing with lines like "But if you think we high, ni**a, think again /'Cause when it's sink or swim/You got to think to win"
"You Can Do It" became Ice Cube's sixth and so far last top-40 crossover hit as a solo lead artist in January of 2000. The song rose to #13 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, also his most recent solo-lead top-40 there, while climbing to #2 on their Hot Rap Songs list and #26 on the Rhythmic Airplay format chart. Internationally, the single would take its time, but eventually go all the way to #2 on the British Singles chart, his biggest success by a kilometer there. The Next Friday soundtrack, released in December of 1999, peaked at #19 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a half million copies. "You Can Do It" also served as the lead single from his War & Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc) companion set, which came out in March of 2000. That record spent a week at #3 on the Billboard 200 tally, while topping the R&B Albums list for a week, also selling a half-million.
The next release from the Peace disc was a collaboration with Krayzie Bone from the group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, "Until We Rich", which stopped halfway up the R&B Singles chart at #50, and missed the pop Hot 100, despite it sounding smoother and more radio friendly. The same rank happened for the third effort, "Hello", which reunited Ice Cube with former N.W.A. mates Dr. Dre and MC Ren.
After an album with Westside Connection (which was be in a future SOTD), Ice Cube took his Lench Mob label and moved from longtime distributor Priority to the big-name EMI. However, his first album there, Laugh Now, Cry Later, came six years after his last solo effort, and while the album made the top ten on the Billboard 200 at #4, and #2 on the R&B Albums list, the lead single "Why We Thugs" stalled down at #92 on the pop Hot 100, and didn't even made the R&B list. A second try, "Go To Church" with Snoop Dogg and crunk master Lil' Jon, popped on to the R&B Singles chart at #67, his most recent minor R&B lead hit, which also "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #121 in 2006.
Two years later, the rapper released Raw Footage, his last big album, which went to #5 on the Billboard 200 and a week at #1 on the R&B Albums list. Nevertheless, the single "Do Ya Thang" only managed to "bubble under" the Hot 100 at #115, which missing the R&B list altogether. Since then, he's released two more studio albums, with Everythang's Corrupt coming out in 2018, and going to #62 on the Billboard 200. He's carved a bigger career in film during this time, starring in a string of hit movies like Are We There Yet, which like Friday was made into a TV show. However most recently, he's been in the news as an anti-vax moron, which got his ass fired from the upcoming movie Oh Hell No with Jack Black.
As for Ms. Toi, she's released a series of albums, most recently HBIC Work in 2021, but none had caught on with the radio. And Mack 10 and Ice Cube as Westside Connection will be back to the series, as well as the Next Friday soundtrack courtesy of another artist.
(5/10)
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Here's Ice Cube and Ms. Toi on tour behind the album in 2000...
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