Songoftheday 9/16/22 -Chillin in my four point six at the light, bout to be VIP for the night....

 

 

"Fiesta (Remix)" - R. Kelly featuring Jay-Z and Boo & Gotti

from the albums TP-2.Com (2000) and The R. in R&B Collection, Vol. 1 (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 15

So here we are again. 

The magical wheel of top-40 hits happens to stop back on this guy, just as he's convicted for child pornography and sexual assault on a minor yesterday, one of his singles comes up in the pre-planned rotation of all the songs that hit the pop top-40 in America. Please don't consider it an endorsement, I'm simply looking at the record for the piece of music that it is. And it isn't that great in this case anyway.

Yes, today's song is from singer/songwriter/producer/writer/convicted sex felon R. Kelly, whose fourth solo album TP-2.com had already landed a top-20 pop/#1 R&B hit with his proselytizing "I Wish" at the beginning of 2001. Around that same time, another track from the album, "The Storm Is Over Now", was released as a single internationally but not in the States, and made the top ten in Belgium (#4W/#26F), Switzerland (#6), and Austria (#10), and peaked at #18 in the United Kingdom. Also, the album cut "I Don't Mean It" got enough radio airplay to spend 17 weeks on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart with a high of #73.

The second single in America, and third internationally, was "Fiesta", originally written by Kelly and produced by the Poke & Tone duo. This version especially exposes it's blatant cribbing of the vibe of Santana's "Maria Maria". Rappers Boo & Gotto (Sabrian Sledge and Mwata Mitchell) provide the rap interlude. 

For the single, the track was overhauled bringing in "ringer" Jay-Z for a second rap bridge. Jay-Z, who just missed the pop top ten with his own last single "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It To Me)", introducing the new version which still just has the sample of Canadian guitarist Pavlo Simtikidis' "Fantasia" carrying the musical weight, with Kelly not even bothering with a chorus. It's a blatant grab for the "Latin Explosion" market, and the public at the time took the bait, sending Kelly back to the pop top ten...

"Fiesta (Remix)" became Kelly's eight top ten pop hit as a lead artist, and ninth overall, in June of 2001. It was Jay-Z's third pop top ten hit as a featured guest, and Boo & Gotti's first and only. The song spent five weeks at #1 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart. On the radio, the track topped the R&B Airplay chart for a week, while peaking at #10 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format list. Internationally, the single crested at #8 in Germany, while reaching the top-40 in Switzerland (#11), France (#17), Canada (#19), Belgium (#19W/#36F), the United Kingdom (#23), and Austria (#27). 

Yeah, we'll be dealing with Kelly and the album again in this series. As well as Jay-Z. As for Boo & Gotti, in 2002 they guested on the single "Oh Yeah" by Big Tymers and Tazee, which missed the pop top-40 at #46 while getting to #23 on the R&B Singles chart. The pair released their own album, Perfect Timing, but the album only got to #195 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #32 on the R&B Albums list. The title track single, with Lil' Wayne, stiffed, and they were booted from his Cash Money label.

(3/10)

Up tomorrow: Locomotive rockers head for the planets.