Songoftheday 6/27/23 - It's not my way to talk to strangers But I feel like I already know you...

 
"Got Ta Be" - B2K
from the album B2K (2002)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #34 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 4
 
Today's song comes from the "boy-band"-styled R&B vocal group B2K, who broke into both the pop and R&B top-40 with their debut single "Uh Huh" in the spring of 2002.  Omarion, J-Boog, Raz-B, and Lil' Fizz's follow-up was "Gots Ta Be", written by Mischke Butler, Steven Russell, and producers Harvey Mason and Damon Thomas (aka the Underdogs). The lyrics have them throwing out all the pickup lines to try to get the girl, including such cringy ones like "I wanna be your motheryour father, your brother and your sister too". The production is sufficiently lush, but the package doesn't offer much that hasn't been done before. The music video casts them in the hot boys with crazy groupies category, with all failing except one (which does it mean they're passing her around?). Anyhoo, MTV of course went with it and the group found themselves with another crossover hit...

 
"Gots Ta Be" became B2K's second top-40 hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in June of 2002, while making it to #13 on their R&B singles list. On the radio, the song also got to #37 on the older-skewing Adult R&B radio panel, and #14 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format. 

A third single from their debut, the ballad "Why I Love You", was a much better listen, but stopped at #73 on the Hot 100, though it again made the R&B top-20 at #19. 

B2K will be back to the series.
 
(4/10)
 
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
 
 
 Here's the group performing the song live in 2002..


Up tomorrow: This singing bird wants some telephone.

Comments