Songoftheday 8/15/23 - Whenever I got no money she is still my honey, there is a reason to be funny

 

 

"Feel It Boy" - Beenie Man featuring Janet Jackson

from the album Tropical Storm (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 4

 

Today's song comes from Jamaican reggae artist Beenie Man (legal name Anthony Moses Davis) who scored a top-40 pop hit in the spring of 1998 with the song "Who Am I (Sim Simma)".  A year later, an indie release on a small label, Ruff N Tuff emerged, but aside from the reggae community, where it came in at #5 on Billboard magazine's Reggae Albums chart, the record got little notice. His next album on stalwart genre label VP, The Doctor, topped the Reggae Albums list, and placed at #55 on the R&B Albums chart. The single pulled from the set, "Tell Me" featuring New York DJ Angie Martinez, went to #82 on the R&B Singles chart, and "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #119 at the close of 1998. The Doctor was nominated for a Grammy for Best Reggae Album, losing to veteran band Burning Spear for their Calling Rastafari record.

 

During that time, with his profile in the scene growing, Beenie Man was signed to big-league label Virgin Records. His first disc on the imprint, Art & Life, was released in 2000, and the second single from the record, "Girls Dem Sugar" featuring R&B singer Mya, placed one notch below where "Who Am I" peaked at #16 on Billboard's R&B chart, and got him back on the Hot 100 at #54. The Art & Life album came in at #68 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and again topped the Reggae Albums for a staggering 29 weeks. The set also won the Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2001. However what kept remaining unsaid in this push to bring Beenie Man to the mainstream is his ultra problematic past, with lyrics to more than a few of his songs calling for not only the persecution but literally the death of gays and lesbians. With verses like "I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute the gays" floating about, it's quite sickening the next move that came.

And that was to pair him up with Virgin's flagship artist, someone who professes their affection and allyship with the LGBT community, Janet Jackson. I mean, on paper, I can see the executives going "she's going to take him to a new level", since she was riding high off the longest-running #1 hit of her career, "All For You", and before the Super Bowl dumpster fire that took her down. I cannot see Janet or at least her team not knowing about this beforehand, but she had since expressed a lot of regret over it. The backlash against his homophobic and violent music didn't really ramp up until 2004, but still. You either believe Janet was tricked by the label and oblivious to everything or thinking it would pass quickly. 

Now as for the song "Feel It Boy" itself;  it was written by Beenie with fellow reggae artist Clancy Eccles of the Dynamites along with the Neptunes production team of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. As expected, the production is the best thing about it, with the breezy Neptunes groove framing Beenie Man's attempt to croon, while Janet coos the chorus in the background. It's actually inoffensive, and that's the point, a deliberate major-label cleansing to make a niche artist palatable to the masses. I can't say it's bad, but is it worth the time given to that kind of guy? The music video sells the Caribbean dream (a seeming outtake from How Stella Got Her Groove Back) while Janet is lounging at the beach, there a couple cringy takes of them together...

"Feel It Boy" became Beenie Man's second top-40 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in September of 2002, while climbing to #31 on their R&B Singles chart, and #14 on the Rap Singles list. On the radio, the song went to #25 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, and #13 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single hit #9 in the United Kingdom, and reached the top-40 in Denmark (#11), New Zealand (#12), Canada (#15), Australia (#18), Italy (#24), The Netherlands (#33), and Switzerland (#40). The Tropical Storm album, released in August of that year, crested at #18 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, rose to #7 on the R&B Albums list, and topped the Reggae Albums chart for six weeks.

"Feel It Boy" actually wasn't the first single from Tropical Storm - that was another pairing with a hot female artist. This time it was rapper Lil' Kim on "Fresh From Yard", which originally came out on his former label Shocking Vibes, and went to #85 on the R&B Singles chart in the spring of 2002. That was followed by "Street Life", which was a decent British hit at #13, while just missing the French top-40 at #41. Lastly, the song "Bossman", featuring Lady Saw and Sean Paul (both of whom would grace the American pop top ten), was a minor British hit at #78. 

Beenie Man will be back to the series, as will Janet. 

(4/10)

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Here's Beenie Man (with Janet only dubbed in on video) on Top Of The Pops...

Up tomorrow: That NY DJ wants an exit strategy.