Songoftheday 5/29/23 - It's funny 'cause for a while I walked around with a smile, but deep inside I could hear voices telling me this ain't right...

 

 

"I'm Gonna Be Alright" - Jennifer Lopez featuring Nas

from the albums J. Lo (2001) and J to the L---O! The Remixes (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (five weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 20

 

Today's song comes from superstar multi-hyphenate Jennifer Lopez, who had extended the life of her sophomore album J. Lo, which had spun off a couple of hits with "Love Don't Cost A Thing" and "Play", by remixing tracks from the set and featuring prominent rapper Ja Rule on "I'm Real" and "Ain't It Funny", transforming them into entirely new concoctions with new melodies and only tenuously sharing a title, but the trick worked, resulting in the pair topping the Billboard magazine Hot 100 for a combined eleven weeks. For her next move, Lopez and her team took another album cut from J. Lo, "I'm Gonna Be Alright", and did the rapper-heavy remix treatment. The original, written by Lopez with Lorraine Cook, Ronald LaPread of the Commodores, and producers Cory Rooney and Troy Oliver, used the hip-hop single "8th Wonder" by the Sugarhill Gang, a #82 pop/#15 R&B hit from 1980, as its foundation, giving that group and label head Sylvia Robinson writing credit. 

That slice of neo-freestyle was pleasant enough, but the remix, aimed both to fit in at radio and to boost sales, chopped and reassembled the track, with the remix album version originally featuring then-unknown 50 Cent. Switching out the "8th Wonder" sample for the brooding "Why You Treat Me So Bad" by Club Nouveau, the "Trackmasters" remix done by Sam Barnes and Jean-Claude Olivier has the rapper provide the foil that Lopez was leaving in her lyrics, which as opposed to the other remix hits keeps her lines mostly intact.  

But between the February release of the remix album and the decision to put out "I'm Gonna Be Alright" as a single, Lopez, the Trackmasters, and the record company decided to exchange 50 Cent for a much more known rapper, New Yorker Nas (Nasir Jones), who had racked up two top-40 crossover hits with his own "Street Dreams" in 1994, as well as his collab with QB's Finest on "Oochie Wally" in 2001. It still used the Club Nouveau sample, but tightened up the time, shortening Nas' parts, though he was coming at it from the rich boyfriend angle. With a music video that desperately tries to portray Lopez as a woman of the streets (on a clear soundstage), MTV was again all over it, and J. Lo had one last big hit from the album...

The Trackmasters remix with Nas helped the track rise to the top ten on Billboard's Hot 100 in June of 2002, while stopping at #32 on their R&B Singles list. On the radio, the song went to #6 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, #31 on the R&B Airplay list, and #5 at the dance-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in the United Kingdom (#3), Switzerland (#4), Germany (#6), Hungary (#8), Denmark (#9), Belgium (#9 Flanders/#26 Wallonia), Norway (#10), and the Netherlands (#10). It also made the top-40 in France (#12), Greece (#13), Ireland (#13), Poland (#15), Australia (#16), Finland (#18), Sweden (#22), Italy (#24), Austria (#25), Canada (#29), and New Zealand (#30).

Besides the three hip-hop tinged remixes that were radio hits, two more cuts from the J to the L--O! set made Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. First the J. Lo album cut "Walking On Sunshine" was remixed by the Metro team and went to #35 in May of 2002, then the new cut "Alive", co-written by Lopez's fly-by-night husband/dancer Cris Judd, spent a week at #2 on the list that September helped by mixes by the Thunderpuss team (Barry Harris and Chris Cox). 

Jennifer Lopez and Nas will both be back to the series. 

Original: (6/10)   Trackmaster Remix: (6/10)

Up tomorrow: Rapper and protege applaud a willing woman.