Songoftheday 9/21/23 - From In Living Color to movie scripts, to On the 6 to J. Lo to this...

 

 

"Jenny From The Block" - Jennifer Lopez 

from the album This Is Me...Then (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (four weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 18

 

Today's song comes from actress/singer/dancer Jennifer Lopez, who had changed her musical path like a chameleon since her debut "If You Had My Love" during the "Latin Explosion" of 1999, trying to segue into a dance-pop star with "Love Don't Cost A Thing" from her second album J-Lo. However, after she scored three consecutive hits in a row with hip-hop style reworked versions of songs from that record with the top ten "I'm Gonna Be Alright" with rapper Nas and two #1 singles with "I'm Real" and "Ain't It Funny" (both with rapper Ja Rule), her direction was set in stone (for a while at least). 

For the lead single for her third studio album (following the remix collection J to the L-O! The Remixes), there was apparently a corporate decision to recast her as a "woman of the common people", despite her high-profile lifestyle and especially her high-profile romances. The result is "Jenny From The Block", one of the most corniest attempts of urban branding since Michael Jackson proclaimed himself "Bad". The song had a long list of credited writers, including Lopez herself, producer Troy Oliver and remixers Poke & Tone (Jean-Michel Olivier and Sam Barnes), and ringer Andre "Mr." Deyo, as well as using samples from hip-hop act Boogie Down Productions' "South Bronx" (written by Lawrence "KRS-ONE" Parker and "DJ" Scott "La Rock" Sterling) as well as easy-listening conductor Enoch Light's recording of the disco classic "Hi-Jack" (originally by the Spanish group Barrabas, giving member Jose Fernando Arbex Miro credit) and funk nugget "Heaven And Hell On Earth" (giving royalties to Michael Oliver). The result of this, however, is less a delicious gumbo and more of a LEGO building monstrosity a child would concoct to use all the pieces in the box. The lyrics are so self-defensive posturing, saying she "came from nothing so she deserves to have everything" drivel that may make her feel good, but it doesn't really trickle down to the paeans besides her rabid fanbase. The music video is even more over the top, including then and now (because the world is crazy) current partner Ben Affleck, like his presence is supposed to show how "of the streets" she is. With the camera work meant to mimic paparazzi chasing her every move (like she doesn't tell them beforehand where she'll be), and the result is running for the title for most complete "product" in a genre already flooded with "product". Yet her name recognition and Sony's promotion dollars would never let this die, and J-Lo shuffled her way back into the "A-list" of the pop charts...

"Jenny From The Block" continued her streak of hit lead singles from her albums, reaching the top ten on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in December of 2002. Thanks to a remix including rappers Jadakiss and Styles P. from the LOX, it also hit the R&B Singles chart, albeit at a muted high of #22. On the radio, the song peaked at #2 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, #21 on the R&B/Hip-Hop radio list, and #3 on the dance/R&B oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single went to #1 in Canada (radio/sales) and Hungary, and making the top ten in Spain (#2), Poland (#2), the United Kingdom (#3), Denmark (#3), Italy (#4), the Netherlands (#4), Switzerland (#4), Romania (#4), France (#5), Australia (#5), Norway (#5), Belgium (#6 Wallonia/#7 Flanders), New Zealand (#6), Germany (#7), Austria (#7), and Sweden (#7). The This Is Me...Then album, released in November of that year, spent a week at #2 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over two million copies. 

J-Lo and the album will be back to the series.

(3/10)

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For the "urban" market, and to try to keep the pattern from her last three singles alive, two-thirds of the rap group the LOX were brought in for the "remix" of the track. Styles P. had just scored his own solo top-40 crossover hit with "Good Times" in September, while Jadakiss had only made the top-50 on his collab with Mya on "Best Of Me" in the spring of 2000. Both would eventually make the top ten separately. Their attempt on giving Lopez "street cred" seems so damn canned....

Here's Jennifer appearing on the British program CD:UK to promote the single...

Next up, Lopez appearing in concert in 2014...

and lastly, a year before performing with Taylor Swift in 2013 at Taylor's concert...

Up tomorrow: Rap duo doing some recall.