Songoftheday 7/1/22 - My baby's drama mama don't like me, she be doing things like having them boys come from her neighborhood to the studio trying to fight me...

 

 

"Ms. Jackson" - Outkast

from the album Stankonia (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 21

 

Today's song comes from the hip-hop duo from Atlanta Outkast, whose second album ATLiens had scored a pair of top-40 pop crossover hits with "ATLiens" and "Elevators (Me & You)", with the latter just missing the top ten in the summer of 1996. Two years later, rappers Andre 3000 and Big Boi returned first with a song from the movie Soul Food, "In Due Time", that popped on to Billboard magazine's R&B Airplay chart for a week at #75 in the beginning of 1998. Later that you the pair came back with their next disc, Aquemini, a combination of the pair's zodiac signs that was originally intended for parts in a movie they pitched. Though the album went all the way to #2 on both the Billboard 200 and R&B Albums sales tallies and sold over two million copies, reception from radio and the resulting singles-buying public was cooler. The big single from the set, "Rosa Parks", was heralded by critics, but stalled down at #55 on the pop Hot 100, while rising to #18 on the R&B Singles chart. The track earned Outkast their first Grammy nomination in 1999 for Best Rap Duo/Group Performance, losing out to the Beastie Boys for "Intergalactic". Also, a collaboration with rapper Mystikal for the movie The Wood, "Neck Uv Da Woods", was only a minor R&B hit at #73.

Nevertheless, the big sales of the album and their heightened public profile set Outkast up for their fourth album Stankonia, which came out in the fall of 2000. The lead single from the set was the raucous "B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)", which played like a psychedelic rock dance record with its heavy drum beat prominence. Thought the single only made it to #69 on Billboard's R&B chart and missing the pop Hot 100, MTV and BET gave the music video some heavy exposure. This paid off tremendously with the follow-up "Ms. Jackson", written by the duo with producer David Sheats. The song addresses the mother of a ex with a baby, most specifically Andre 3000's relationship with singer Erykah Badu, which ended the year before. In his verse and in the chorus he apologizes for the way things turned out, and promised to be there for his son growing up. However Big Boi's verse, which comes first oddly, kind of attempts to throw a wrench in things, threatening eviction and turning of the utilities and all. I'm not sure what inspired his lyrics if real or not, but it definitely was a contrast to Andre's contrition. Even so, the song flowed with a perfectly toned cadence, and though "Rosa Parks" was much more experimental and nuanced, "Ms. Jackson" caught radio and the public's attention, and with the released of a CD single that sold like hotcakes, Outkast found themselves on top with a song that really stood out in lyrical content to match the hype production...

"Ms. Jackson" went all the way to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart for a week in February of 2001. The song also topped their R&B Singles chart for two weeks, as well as the Rap Singles list for three weeks. On the radio, the track went to #1 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format for five weeks, while even making it to #13 on the Mainstream Top-40 radio list. Internationally, the single topped the charts in Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, and Norway, and reached the top ten in the United Kingdom (#2), Australia (#2), Switzerland (#2), Belgium (#2F/#5W), Austria (#3), Denmark (#3), France (#5), Ireland (#5), New Zealand (#5), Romania (#6), Finland (#8), Italy (#9), and Canada (#9). The Stankonia album, released in October of 2000, spent two weeks at #2 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, as well as the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over five million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2002, "Ms. Jackson" won the award for Best Duo/Group Rap Performance, and was nominated for one of the big ones, Record Of The Year, which went to U2 for "Walk On". The music video was also up for a Grammy, which British DJ Fatboy Slim took home for the Christopher Walken dance routine on "Weapon Of Choice". Both Outkast and the Stankonia album will return to the series...

(10/10)

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Here's Andre and Big Boi appearing on the British Top Of The Pops...

Let's rewind a little for their appearance at the World AIDS Day concert in 2000...

 And lastly, the duo recreated the video at the American Music Awards in 2001...

Up tomorrow: Country singer is in a recurring heaven.