Songoftheday 9/25/22 - Drop your glasses, shake your asses, face screwed up like you having hot flashes...

 

 

"Let Me Blow Ya Mind" - Eve featuring Gwen Stefani

from the album Scorpion (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 28

 

Today's song comes from rapper Eve (Jeffries), whose debut album Let There Be Eve... had scored a trio of top-40 crossover hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in 1999 through 2000 with "What Ya Want", "Gotta Man", and "Love Is Blind".  She also was featured on Missy Elliott's top ten pop hit from the beginning of 2000 "Hot Boyz". A second label compilation from her Ruff Ryders label, Ryde or Die Vol 2, came out in the summer of that year, and contained Eve's collaboration with Jadakiss, "Got It All", which went to #27 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart and #88 on the Hot 100. 

In the spring of 2001, Eve returned with her own sophomore effort, Scorpion. The lead single from the set was the declarative "Who's That Girl". While the song missed the Hot 100 top-40 this time at #47, and stopped at #16 on the R&B Singles chart, the single made it to #5 on Billboard's Rap Singles chart. It was Eve's first international success, reaching the top ten in the United Kingdom (#6), Switzerland (#8), and Denmark (#10), and also making the top-40 in Norway (#14), Belgium (#15W/#42F), France (#17), the Netherlands (#17), Germany (#21), Sweden (#29), and Ireland (#34). The track got recent exposure in its use in the credits for an episode of the Disney+/Marvel series She-Hulk. 

The second single from Scorpion would bring her to mainstream pop success with "Let Me Blow Your Mind". The record features Gwen Stefani from the rock band No Doubt, who dipped her toes solo on Moby's breakbeat hit "South Side" that May. Written by Eve with producers Dr. Dre (Andre Young) and Scott Storch along with studio vet Mike Elizondo, the record has Eve asserting her dominance in the field, and addressing the critics who had predicted a "sophomore slump". Gwen sweeps in for the chorus cooing the lure in the rest to soften the early-90's G-funk production Dr. Dre gives the record. The music video has the pair crashing a swanky party including actor Udo Kier, who was in Madonna's "Deeper And Deeper" video but isn't as "hip" in this one...

"Let Me Blow Ya Mind" went all the way to the runner-up spot on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in August of 2001, the first top ten success for each of the women. The song climbed to #6 on the R&B Singles chart, while getting to #10 on the Rap Songs list. On the radio, the track spent a week at #1 on the Mainstream top-40 chart as well as the dance-oriented Rhythmic format, and got to #4 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list. Internationally, the single topped the charts in Belgium, Ireland, Norway, and Switzerland, and reached the top ten in the Netherlands (#2), Denmark (#3), the United Kingdom (#4), Australia (#4), Germany (#5), Sweden (#6), Austria (#6), New Zealand (#7), and Portugal (#7). The Scorpion album, released in March of that year, peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and took a week at #1 on the R&B Albums list. At the Grammy Awards in 2002, "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" won the pair the trophy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, while Scorpion was nominated for Best Rap Album, losing to Outkast for their stellar Stankonia. Both Eve and Gwen will return to the series.

(5/10)

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Eve and Gwen cleaned things up for their performance on the Teen Choice Awards...

...next on they bring in the vehicles onstage for BET...

And finally, Eve live for AOL in 2009...

Up tomorrow: A son of a hip-hop mogul gets extra-juvenile, perhaps.