Songoftheday 11/16/22 - Was hurtin 'em in the home of the Terrapins got it dirt cheap for them, plus if they was short with cheese I would work with them...

 

 

"Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" - Jay-Z

from the album The Blueprint (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 17

 

Today's song comes from rapper Sean "Jay-Z" Carter, who had almost made the top ten on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 pop chart at the end of 2000 with "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It To Me)", from his fifth album The Dynasty: Roc La Familia.  The following year, he did make that mark (his third as a featured artist) on R. Kelly's remix single "Fiesta". Later on in 2001, Jay-Z recorded his sixth full-length release The Blueprint, which had the downside luck of being released on September 11th, 2001. But months before that, in July, he put out the lead single from the record, "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)". It was Jay-Z's first single was up and coming producer (and soon star rapper and eventual lunatic) Kanye West. The "H.O.V.A." was supposed to be a version of his self-proclaimed alternate name "Jay-Hova" (oh, please), with the Izzo the urban version of pig Latin to spell it out. In the lyrics Carter broadcasts his innocence for a stabbing of a producer at a nightclub in 1999, which he would be found guilty on trial and put on probation. The rest is the usual bragging about street cred and fighting the music business, but since it was all laid upon a sample of the Jackson Five's "I Want You Back" (giving its songwriter team of Freddie Perren, Alphonzo Mizell, and Deke Richards writing credit along with Carter and West), it was embraced by pop radio, and with the general public, his momentum couldn't be steeper, and with a music video featuring a cavalcade of hip-hop stars, MTV went full on board...

"Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" became Jay-Z's first top ten hit on the Hot 100 as a lead artist in October of 2001, while rising to #4 on Billboard's R&B Single chart and #7 on the Rap Songs list. On the radio, the song went to #22 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, #2 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list, and #4 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in the United Kingdom (#21) and Austria (#23). The Blueprint album, as I mentioned released on 9/11, still ended up wildly successful, spending three weeks on both the Billboard 200 sales tally and the R&B Albums chart, going on to sell two million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2002, "Izzo" was nominated for Best Solo Rap Performance, losing to Missy Elliott for her "Get Ur Freak On" single. Also, The Blueprint was up for Best Rap Album, which went to Outkast for their Stankonia album. Both Jay-Z and the Blueprint album will be back to the series.

(5/10)

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Jay-Z performed the single at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2001 outside of Lincoln Center...

and lastly, on his On The Run tour with Beyonce in 2014...

Up tomorrow: Prospective cowboy isn't in it for the long run.