Songoftheday 8/14/23 -Every day I need an ounce and a half, S.P. the only flower that you know with a bounce-and-a-half...

 

 

"Good Times" - Styles

from the album A Gangster and a Gentleman (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #22 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 9

 

Today's song comes from David R. Styles, who performed under his surname Styles (then eventually Styles P.). Styles, was born in Queens and grew up in Yonkers, New York, where he came together with Jason "Jadakiss" Phillips and Sean "Sheek Louch" Jacobs to become the rap trio the Lox. The Lox, signed to Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs' Bad Boy label, had a pair of crossover top-40 hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in 1998 with "If You Think I'm Jiggy" and "Money, Power, Respect".  However, after their sophomore effort We Are The Streets in Ruff Ryders Records failed to spin off any hits, even after coming in the top-5 on the albums chart and selling over a half million copies, the legal entanglements between the labels caused the three to split off to pursue solo careers. While Jadakiss was the first to release a solo set, Kiss Tha Game Goodbye, in 2000 which also made the top-5 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, it would be Styles that would have the first lead artist top-40 crossover over on the Hot 100 (Sheek Louch was featured on DMX's "Get At Me Dog" while they were still the Lox in 1998). 

Styles put out his first disc A Gangster And A Gentleman on Ruff Ryders Records in the summer of 2002, with the lead single "The Life" featuring rapper Pharoahe Monch, which was originally issued on the indie Rawkus label that spring and went to #66 on the R&B singles chart. That was followed by the cruising record "Good Times". Written by the rapper with producer Robert "Saint Denson" Hankerson, using a sample of the obscure soul nugget "I Get High (On Your Memory)" recorded by Freda Payne in 1976 giving Marilyn Mcleod and Pam Sawyer writing credit, the rap lyrics are an ode to marijuana with a heavy sprinkle of gang gun violence mixed in. Freda's voice is distorted to chipmunk range, while the actual beat Styles raps on by Saint Denson and Swizz Beatz is lazy and plodding. But it still was a little more melodic than his Lox fare, and while it was hella repetitive, it captured the market of the theme he was selling, and Styles found himself with a big urban radio turned crossover hit...

"Good Times" hit the top 40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in September of 2002, while climbing to #6 on their R&B Singles chart and #8 on the Rap Singles list. On the radio, the song also rose to #20 on the dance/R&B oriented Rhythmic format. The Gangster and a Gentleman album, released in July of that year, came in at #6 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #2 on the R&B Albums list (his biggest by far on the two charts), going on to sell over a half-million copies. 

They tried re-releasing "The Life" as a follow-up, but it didn't get traction (sad, it a much better record). In 2004, Styles would be a guest on Akon's top ten hit "Locked Up" (bringing him back to the series), but when Akon returned the favor on the first single from Styles' next album, Time Is Money (where Styles added the "P." to his recording moniker), "Can You Believe It", the result only scraped the R&B top-40 at #32, while the album itself stalled at #79 on the Billboard 200. After a third disc on Ruff Ryders, Super Gangster (Extraordinary Gentleman), saw its big single "Blow Your Mind" konk out at #51 on the R&B chart, Styles P left the label and recording for a few years. 

Styles P returned in 2010 as a featured rapper on Rick Ross' single "B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast)", which went to #6 on Billboard's R&B chart, #4 on the Rap Singles list, and made the Hot 100 at #60, his second and final time so far as a solo artist. Ross would go on to appear on a track on Styles' first indie album Master Of Ceremonies the next year, which rose to #33 on the Billboard 200 and #5 on the R&B Albums list. 

Since then Styles P. has released eleven solo records on various labels, as well as five collaborative albums with five different DJs or rappers, with the most recent charting of either being his album with rapper Dave East, 2018's Beloved, which hit #70 on the Billboard 200 and #35 on the R&B Albums list. His own latest release, Penultimate: A Calm Wolf Is Still A Wolf, arrived in January of 2023.

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Part of the popularity of the single was the "I Get High" remix that came on the commercial 12" single featuring rappers Method Man and Redman...

 

 Styles brought on Lox bandmate Jadakiss along with D-Block to perform live here in 2005...

and lastly, Styles and bassist Brady Watt doing a broke down "Good Times"...

 Up tomorrow: Problematic dancehall artist pairs up with an icon in the gay community inexplicably for a top-40 hit.