Songoftheday 5/26/22 - My homies call me on my mobile wanna hang we still close too, I switched positions with them poor cats I write raps...

 

 

"Callin' Me" - Lil' Zane featuring 112

from the album Young World: The Future (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 4

 

Today's song comes from rapper Lil' Zane, who grew up as Zane Copeland Jr. in Atlanta. Zane started his music path as a young child, at first as a part of a group that didn't go anywhere, then being discovered by local R&B group 112, who had been successful nationally in the latter half of the 1990s. Billed as "Lil Z" at the time, he was featured on 112's single "Anywhere", which made the pop top-20 in the spring of 1999, as he was opening for them on tour. That song also would appear as a bonus track on Lil' Zane's debut album Young World: The Future on the rap/dance-heavy Priority Records the following year, which also sported his contribution to the Next Friday soundtrack, "Money Stretch", the B-side of Ice Cube's top-40 hit from the movie "You Can Do It". 

The first single from Young World would be "Callin' Me", which featured 112 returning the favor on vocals on the chorus hook. Written by Zane with producers Dominick "Digga Doms" Warren and Ken "Mistafiss" Jones along with Irving Folmar, the record is mostly bragging and throwing brand names around and the precursors to the wealth porn that's totally overrun the genre since. 112's chorus tries to anchor it to how "crazy busy" the famous life is, but it does seem kind of performative for such an unproven entity. Nevertheless the Latin-influenced groove stuck, and Zane found himself with his second top-40 pop hit with 112...

"Callin' Me" became Lil' Zane's first and only Hot 100 hit as a lead artist, reaching the top-40 in September of 2000. The song rose to #8 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, while topping the Rap Songs list for six weeks. It also got to #22 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic radio airplay chart. The Young World: The Future album, released in August of that year, peaked at #25 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #4 on the R&B Albums list. 

Lil' Zane's follow-up single, "None Tonight", approximated a Darkchild beat with produer Ricciardo Lumpkins, and was a come-on to the ladies, but it wasn't as well received, stalling at #68 on the R&B Singles chart in 2001, though it did climb to #2 on the Rap Singles list. Later that year, Zane got together with rappers Lil Bow Wow and Lil Wayne and singer Sammie for the song "Hardball" from the Keanu Reeves movie of that name. The result was a minor R&B hit at #77. 

The rapper returned in 2003 with his sophomore effort The Big Zane Theory, dropping the "Lil" from his credits. However, his audience also moved on, and lead single "Tonite I'm Yours" featuring singer Tank stopped short on the R&B Singles chart at #87. The album only spent a week on the Billboard 200 at #191, and after disputes on payment and promotion, Zane left the Priority label. Since then, he had released a couple of albums independently, with Free Zane appearing in 2012. This year Zane released a new single, "Searching". 

(3/10)

Up tomorrow: This pop singer is blessed.