Songoftheday 5/29/22 - Around here we pop them collars, around here we get them dollars...
"Bounce With Me" - Lil Bow Wow featuring Xscape
from the albums Big Momma's House (Original Soundtrack) & Beware Of Dog (both 2000)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (four weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12
Today's song comes from Lil Bow Wow, who grew up Shad Gregory Moss in Ohio, where he started to rap at just six years old. Discovered by hip-hop giant Snoop Dogg on a concert date in Los Angeles, Moss was christened "Lil Bow Wow" and appeared on Snoop's debut album Doggystyle in 1993. Five years later, producer/rapper Jermaine "JD" Dupri took Lil Bow Wow on at his So So Def record label, contributing a song to Will Smith's Wild Wild West movie before releasing his own debut solo album Beware Of Dog in 2000, at just thirteen years old. The lead single from the record, "Bounce With Me", paired him up with another So So Def act, female R&B group Xscape, who hadn't been heard since their pair of top ten pop hits in 1998 with "The Arms Of The One That Hold You" and "My Little Secret". It would be their own last appearance as a group before their long hiatus. "Bounce With Me", co-written by Dupri, rapper Shawntae "Da Brat" Harris, and Bryan Michael Cox, rode on a sample of Barry White's orchestral disc nugget "Love Serenade". Dupri took the funky breakdown on the second half of that suite and had Bow Wow spill out some PG-rated (there's an n-word in there) bragging and wealth porn that's heavy on the Mickey Mouse. The song appeared in Martin Lawrence's cringy cross-dressing comedy Big Momma's House in the spring of 2000, prepping fans up for the single and album from him later that summer. The music video does double duty introducing Lil' Bow Wow and being an ad for the film. For his part, Bow Wow's ultra-fast delivery is impressive, though it is a little disconcerting he didn't get a writer's credit on the single, and the production bridged the gap between gangsta rap and what Destiny's Child was putting out there...
"Bounce With Me" became Lil Bow Wow's first top-40 pop hit on his first try, reaching the Billboard magazine Hot 100 top-20 in September of 2000. The song topped Billboard's R&B Singles chart for a week, while doing so for nine weeks on their Rap Songs list. It also climbed to #8 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic radio format chart. Internationally, the single was a minor hit in Australia at #48. The Big Momma's House soundtrack, released in May of that year, just missed the top-40 on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #41. But the Beware Of Dog album, released as "Bounce With Me" was cresting in September, did much better, going to #8 on the Billboard 200 and #3 on the R&B Albums list, spending a full year on the chart and selling over two million copies.
Besides "Bounce With Me", the Big Momma's House soundtrack also scored two more minor R&B hits, with "I've Gotta Have It" from Dupri and rapper Nas featuring singer Monica reaching #67 on the R&B chart, and Da Brat's "That's What I'm Looking For", which also previewed her upcoming album, getting to #18 on the R&B chart and #56 on the pop Hot 100.
As for Lil Bow Wow, both he and the Beware Of Dog album will be back to the series.
(5/10)
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and lastly, live at the Apollo to a hyped up crowd...
Up tomorrow: This R&B star is questioning your cohones.
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