Songoftheday 6/27/22 - I wanna get you in the Georgia Dome on the fifty yard line, while the Dirty Birds kick for tree...

 

 

"What's Your Fantasy" - Ludacris featuring Shawnna

from the albums Incognegro and Back For The First Time (both 2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 15

 

Today's song comes from rapper/actor Chris Bridges, who performs under the moniker Ludacris. Bridges moved to Atlanta as a child, and it was there he established his hip-hop music career. Setting up his own label Disturbing The Peace after being a DJ at the local urban radio station, Ludacris self-released his debut album Incognegro in August of 2000. The first single from the set, "Ho", only bubbled under the R&B Singles chart in Billboard magazine at #103 in the spring of that year, but Chris would gain much more traction with the follow-up single. "What's Your Fantasy", written by Ludacris with producer Shondrae "Bangladesh" Crawford, originally came out in July. The record features female rapper Shawnna, aka Rashawnna Guy, the daughter of blues legend Buddy Guy. Shawnna had already appeared on the R&B charts as one half of the duo Infamous Syndicate, with the minor hit "Here I Go" at #63. That record did climb to #8 on Billboard's Rap Singles chart, giving Shawnna some name recognition already for her speedy verse delivery. The party record has the rapper going on with what he'll do to his partner sexually, using all types of locations from planes to the White House while also name-checking TLC's hit "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" as well as his birthplace of Champaign, Illinois. Shawnna's role is just repeating the chorus, but brings enough attitude to establish herself on the record. The response to "What's Your Fantasy" was so great that Def Jam Records picked up Ludacris and his Disturbing The Peace label, releasing a revamped album Back For The First Time a couple months later with ten of the same tracks as Incognegro with a couple new cuts. The music video from the Def Jam release has Ludacris and Shawnna at a car party in a parking lot and cruising around...

"What's Your Fantasy" became the first top-40 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 for both Ludacris and Shawnna in December of 2000. The single climbed to #10 on the R&B Singles chart, as well as #5 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic radio list and #12 on the Rap Songs chart in Billboard. Internationally, the single made it to #19 on the British Singles chart. The Incognegro album spent a pair of weeks on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #179 in October of that year, and a month later the Back For The First Time arrived on the list, going on to reach of peak of #4 and spend over a year on the Billboard 200, selling over three million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2002, Back For The First Time was nominated for Best Rap Album, losing out to Outkast's Stankonia. Both Ludacris and Shawnna will be back to the series, both together and apart, as well as the For The First Time album.

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Here's Ludacris doing a short bit of "What's Your Fantasy" on MTV...

Next up, for a beach concert for BET Network in 2001...

 

And lastly, at the Bonnaroo music festival in 2012...

 

 Up tomorrow: Puff Daddy's answer to the girl group is picking daisies, perhaps.