Songoftheday 8/27/22 - In the club on the late night feeling right, looking, trying to spot something real nice...

 

 

"Ride Wit Me" - Nelly featuring City Spud

from the album Country Grammar (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 26

 

Today's song comes from St. Louis-based rapper Nelly, whose debut album Country Grammar had spun off a top ten pop crossover hit with "(Hot Sh!t) Country Grammar" followed by a top-40 follow-up in "E.I." in the beginning of 2001. The third single pulled from the record was the smooth hip-hop of "Ride Wit Me", with featured a member of Nelly's affiliated group St. Lunatics. However by the time the single was released, City Spud was in prison convicted of armed robbery. The song was written by the rapper with producer Jason Epperson with a snippet of lyrics of the R&B hit "I Like It" by DeBarge, giving El, Bunny, and William Debarge writing credit. The first verse has Nelly macking on a woman at the club, while the second and third have him bragging up his wheels, though there's a flash of vulnerability in their with lines like "I got the title from my momma put the whip in my own name now
Damn shit done changed now, Running credit checks with no shame now" which at least sets him apart with the "from the bottom to the top" more rappers avoid. City Spud takes the third verse,with more braggadocio and posturing, but not long after we're back to the flow on the chorus, which implants on your brain (must be the money, eh?). The music video has Nelly at an out-of-the-way dive with non-incarcerated St. Lunatics Kyjuan, Ali, Slo Down, and Murphy Lee, the latter who will have his own post on this series as a lead artist. They all mime City Spud's verse for obvious reasons...

"Ride Wit Me" became Nelly's second top ten crossover hit, and City Spud's first, in June of 2001. Despite being the biggest "pop" hit from the album, the single stalled down at #34 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart (maybe too melodic?). On the radio, "Ride Wit Me" topped the dance-oriented Rhythmic format for six weeks, and hit #3 on the Pop Airplay chart, but again stopped at #26 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Belgium (#2W/#27F), the United Kingdom (#3), Australia (#4), Ireland (#4), The Netherlands (#6), and Norway (#7). At the Grammy Awards in 2002, the song was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance (even though it had that City Spud feature), losing to Missy Elliott for her "Get Ur Freak On".

A fourth single from Country Grammar, "Batter Up", featured the St. Lunatics, and was included on both Nelly's album and their own debut Free City, which came out in June of 2001 as "Ride Wit Me" was cresting and hit #3 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and topped the R&B Albums list and sold over a million copies. Despite all that exposure "Batter Up" struck out at #76 on Billboard's R&B singles chart while missing the pop Hot 100 altogether. However, members of the group, as well as Nelly, will be back to the series. 

(7/10)

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Here's Nelly and two of his St. Lunatics posse performing the song for TV...

In 2020, during the initial pandemic months, Nelly and City Spud (who got out of prison in 2009) did an in-studio jam of the song with a band that's damn good...

And lastly, Nelly performed the song on the CMT Crossroads series with country performers Kane Brown, BRELAND, and Blanco Brown...

Up tomorrow: This power-trio addresses their haters.