Songoftheday 7/26/23 - Yo need you to understand me daddy, I ain't your average baby girl doin' it all I'm well established...

 

 

"Gangsta Lovin'" - Eve featuring Alicia Keys

from the album Eve-Olution (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (four weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 19

 

Today's song comes from female rapper Eve, whose sophomore album Scorpion brought her to an entire new audience courtesy of her collaborative single with No Doubt's Gwen Stefani on the Grammy-winning "Let Me Blow Your Mind" which made the top ten on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the summer of 2001.  At the beginning of the following year, Eve was a featured rapper on R&B group City High's single "Caramel", which made the top-20. 

But Eve and her record company Ruff Ryders didn't release a follow-up single from Scorpion to capitalize on the success of "Let Me Blow Your Mind" (perhaps there wasn't a radio friendly enough cut in there I forget). So it was a risk waiting a whole year for the release of the rapper's next album, Eve-Olution, in 2002. To counter this they brought in a "ringer" in the form of soul-pop ingenue and Grammy magnet Alicia Keys, who provided more than just a cameo tag in the lead single "Gangsta Lovin'". Keys was just coming off her debut, which spun off the #1 hit "Fallin'" and top ten follow-up "A Woman's Worth". Written by Eve with producers Marcus Vest (aka Seven Aurelius) and Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo, using a sample of the early 80's post-disco jam "Don't Stop The Music" from Yarborough & Peoples (albeit a subtle crib of the "I just wanna rock you" denouement in that song). Despite the title, though, the lyrics don't really follow the crime and money-ridden path but rather has Eve macking on a "ruffneck" that she finds his grittiness sexy. There's no gunplay and no "brand porn", which was probably quite intentional to make this pop radio accessible). Alicia really brightens up the track more than any regular guest singer could do. Though to be honest, I really don't remember knowing this when it came out, for being such a big hit it was (it's her biggest)...

"Gangsta Lovin'" spent month (four weeks) at #2 on both the pop and R&B charts in Billboard in September of 2002, and also hit #2 on the Rap Singles list. On the radio, the song went to #2 on the Mainstream Top-40 & R&B Airplay charts, as well as the dance-R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Australia (#4), Norway (#5), the United Kingdom (#6), Switzerland (#6), Finland (#6), New Zealand (#7), the Netherlands (#8), Sweden (#10), and Hungary (#10), and made the top-40 in Belgium (#13 Wallonia/#18 Flanders), Italy (#14), Ireland (#15), France (#20), and Germany (#21). The Eve-Olution album, which came out in August of that year, came in at #6 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and topped the R&B Albums list for a week, going on to sell over a half million copies.

Both Eve and the album (as well as Alicia Keys) will be back to the series.

(6/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's Eve (with Alicia on the backtrack) appearing on the British chart show Top Of The Pops...

And lastly, Eve and Keys in person performing at a football broadcast...

Up tomorrow: These funk-rock titans, as a matter of fact.