Songoftheday 8/3/23 - Excuse me if you see me screaming, but deep in my mind I'm only dreaming...

 

 "Two Wrongs" - Wyclef Jean featuring Claudette Ortiz of City High

from the album Masquerade (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 7

 

Today's song comes from rapper/singer/musician/producer/songwriter multi-hyphenate Wyclef Jean who had returned to the Billboard magazine Hot 100 top-40 as a lead artist in the late autumn of 2000 with "911" featuring Mary J. Blige. Two years later, Wyclef returned with his third solo album after disbanding the Fugees, Masquerade. The lead single from this set also featured a female R&B singer, Claudette Ortiz, who was fresh from the trio City High which scored a pair of hits in the early 2000s with "Caramel" and the top ten "What Would You Do?". After City High dissolved (basically Ortiz went from being with one of the other two to marrying the other), Jean positioned her for her own solo stint (he has experience with bandmate romance) by featuring her here. Written by Jean with frequent collaborator Jerry Duplessis, the lyrics play out like a conversation of a couple on the verge of a break-up, with Wyclef pleading with Claudette that he needs her back, and she in return states her demands of his fidelity. Their chemistry works well on record, and they're equally balanced in sharing the vocals which are more heartfelt than is usual in these "featured" pairings. The production from Duplessis and Jean is a sweet lite-reggae that had a very interesting melodic flow in its key changes. (The "City High" tag in the start was a little odd knowing that was a dead brand by then.) All and all, a very respectable effort that was maybe a little too sophisticated for mainstream radio in the early 2000s. The music video had Wyclef and Oritz performing and being mirror by an actor couple, throwing domestic violence into the mix...

"Two Wrong" became Wyclef Jean's third top-40 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in August of 2002, while narrowly missing the top ten on their R&B Singles chart at #11. On the radio, the song peaked at #14 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, and #25 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single hit #1 in New Zealand and #5 in Australia, and reached the top-40 in Norway (#13), the United Kingdom (#14), Sweden (#16), Hungary (#20), Ireland (#29), Switzerland (#30), and the Netherlands (#32). The Masquerade album, released in June of that year, came in at #6 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #2 on the R&B Albums list. 

Wyclef's follow-up from the album would pair him with another singer, this time pop veteran Tom Jones on "Pussycat", by means of using a looped sample of Jones' hit from the 60's. As opposed to "Two Wrongs", this was way too corny and didn't work at all, and stiffed everywhere except being a minor hit in Australia at #58. This is even with the requisite "urban radio" remix with Busta Rhymes, Loon, and oddly enough a version with the two guys from City High and the other with Claudette. 

Wyclef will be back to the series. As for Claudette, she released a new single, "Can't Get Enough" in 2006, which featured rapper Mase of Puff Daddy's Bad Boy crew. That song made the top-40 on the R&B chart at #37, and popped on to the pop Hot 100 at #89. More recently, Ortiz was in the cast of the reality show R&B Divas: Los Angeles (even though she's a New Jersey girl). 

(7/10)

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Here's Wyclef and Claudette performing the song live in a television appearance...

Up tomorrow: The female country trio return big, not foreseeing the near future.