Songoftheday 9/29/23 -I met him when I was a A little girl, he gave me poetry and he was my first...

 

 

"Love Of My Life (An Ode To Hip-Hop)" - Erykah Badu featuring Common

from the albums Brown Sugar (Original Soundtrack) (2002) and Worldwide Underground (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 18

 

Today's song comes from neo-soul singer Erykah Badu, who scored a top ten pop crossover hit in the autumn of 2000 with "Bag Lady", which also topped Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart for seven weeks. At the time, she began a romantic relationship with hip-hop artist Common (aka Lonnie Rashid Lynn), and sang on the remix of his single "The Light", which almost made the Hot 100 top 40 at #44 at around the same time "Bag Lady" was cresting. A year later, she also guested on a single from Macy Gray, "Sweet Baby", which climbed to #23 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format in America while reaching #16 on the British Singles chart. 

In the fall of 2002, Badu returned with a contribution to the soundtrack to the romantic comedy Brown Sugar starring Taye Diggs. "Love Of My Life (An Ode To Hip-Hop)" was written by Badu and Common along with James Poyser from the Roots, Robert Ozuna, Madukwu Chinwah, Glenn Standridge, and producer Raphael Saadiq (know best for his work as a member of Tony! Toni! Tone'!). The lyrics tell a story of Badu's first love, but after breaking up and him continuing to be a "shoulder to lean on", she found herself back to him. But all the while, this is all a metaphor on the power of hip-hop music to her as she was growing. As the genre evolved into different forms, she fell in love again and again but it was like reconnecting with a old friend. Common is back as the romantic counterpart and the symbol of a new generation of hip-hop at the time, and their chemistry is sweet. The music video drives the metaphor home, as Erykah passes through scenes including old-school rap (with MC Lyte) to the rise of G-funk (with Dr. Dre) to the stoner rap period to finding fame and being stuck in front of a crowd of melanin-deprived partiers. After Common delivers his missive, Badu catches the bus driven by rap legend Kool Herc, making it come full circle. It's a jazzy yet engaging number that doesn't strive for mainstream acceptance, but she got it anyway, claiming her next big crossover hit and last of her five singles to top the R&B Singles chart...

"Love Of My Life" became Badu's second top ten hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in January of 2003, while spending four weeks at #1 on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the single peaked at #4 on Billboard's older-skewing Adult R&B airplay chart. The Brown Sugar soundtrack, released in September of 2002, rose to #16 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #2 on the R&B Albums list. At the Grammy Awards in 2003, "Love Of My Life" won the trophy for Best R&B Song, and was nominated for Best Urban Alternative Performance (losing to India.Arie's "Little Things") and Best Song from Television or Movie, which went to Randy Newman's "If I Didn't Have You" from the animated film Monsters, Inc..

After the success of the single, Erykah fell into a period of writer's block, and it would be a year after the soundtrack came out that her fourth album Worldwide Underground would be released. The set wouldn't have the original single version of "Love Of My Life", but a remix titled "Love Of My Life Worldwide" which featured Queen Latifah, Bahamadia, and Angie Stone, which subbed an interpolation of the classic single "Funk You Up" from the Sequence from 1979. The first single actually taken from the new album was "Danger", which stopped at #27 on the R&B Singles chart, and stalled down at #82 on the Hot 100 (it deserved much better). That was followed by the insane deep funk of "Back In The Day (Puff)", which got to #62 on the R&B Singles chart, and #13 on the Adult R&B radio list. The Worldwide Underground album, released in September of 2003, spent a week at #3 on the Billboard 200, and got to #2 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a half-million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, the album was nominated for Best R&B Albums, which went to Luther Vandross for Dance With My Father. "Danger" garnered two nods for Best Urban Alternative Performance, losing to Outkast's massive hit "Hey Ya!", as well as Best R&B Song, which was won by Beyonce and Jay-Z's "Crazy In Love". "Back In The Day" was also up for Best R&B Female Vocal Performance, which Beyonce nabbed as well for "Dangerously In Love 2". 

The next few years found Badu touring both behind the album herself and as part of the Sugar Water Festival. She also guested on a few tracks, including a remix of Common's single "Come Close", which peaked at #86 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart in 2003. In 2006, Erykah was featured on Brazilian soft-pop veteran Sergio Mendes' 'comeback' album, Timeless, on the track "That Heat" with Black Eyed Peas leader will.i.am. That song was nominated for a Grammy for Best Urban Alternative Performance, which went to Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy". 

Erykah came backin 2008 with the first volume in what would be a two release opus called New Amerykah (4th World War), which peaked at #2 on both the Billboard 200 and R&B Albums charts. The lead single from the record, "Honey", went to #22 on Billboard's main R&B Singles chart, but rose to #5 on the Adult R&B radio list, and popped on to the Hot 100 at #88. The eye-catching music video, which places her in classic R&B and hip-hop album covers, was up for a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video, which geek rock band Weezer won for "Pork And Beans". 

The second volume of New Amerykah, subtitled Return Of The Ankh, arrived in 2010, and so far is her last "official" studio album. The set came in at #4 on the Billboard 200, and #2 on the R&B Albums list, while the big hit from the record, "Window Seat", took two weeks at #1 on Billboard's Adult R&B chart, while rising to #18 on the main R&B Singles list and #95 on the Hot 100. That was followed by her most recent R&B Singles chart appearance with "Turn Me Away (Get Munney)" which spent three months on the list with a high of #87.

At the close of 2015, instead of releasing a promised third volume of New Amerykah, Badu put out a mixtape of reworked songs from others, But You Caint Use My Phone, which peaked at #14 on the Billboard 200 and #2 on the R&B Albums list. From it the track "Phone Down" climbed to #10 on Billboard's Adult R&B airplay chart. Most recently, Erykah collaborated with Roots member James Royser on a jazzy remake of Squeeze's new wave classic "Tempted" from the movie The Photograph in 2019.

(8/10)

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Here's the remix of the song that appeared on Worldwide Underground that featured Queen Latifah, Bahamadia, and Angie Stone...

Erykah Badu and Common performed the song for a tribute to hip-hop icon Mos Def in 2003...

and lastly, in concert in 2011...

Tomorrow I'll have my top hits of this week, and SONGOFTHEDAY will be back Monday with a country crossover trio recounting the present.