Songoftheday 9/5/23 - I got this jones forming in my bones, who indeed took over my soul...

 

 

"Baby" - Ashanti 

from the album Ashanti (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #15 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 13

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Ashanti, whose self-titled debut album had scored a #1 hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "Foolish" and a top ten follow-up with "Happy". She also was part of the collaborative single from her label as "The Inc." with the top ten pop crossover hit "Down 4 U". The third and final single from the Ashanti set was "Baby", written by Ashanti with producers Andre "Chink Santana" Douglas, Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo, and Marcus "7 Aurelius" Vest as well as Mike Dean and rapper Brad "Scarface" Jordan for the sample of Scarface's "Mary Jane", and the latter appearing on one of the single remixes. The lyrics have the singer cooing about how much she's in love, with some deft wordplay as the verses go on. But the chorus is mostly just a litany of "Babys" that just drag this down. It may be effective music for the bedroom, but just on a casual listen it gets monotonous...

"Baby" became Ashanti's sixth appearance on the Hot 100 in October of 2002, while climbing to #7 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song also climbed to #7 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. 

Ashanti will be back to the series.

(4/10)

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The main remix of the song featured rapper Dominick "Crooked I" Wickliffe, who would go on to be in the supergroup Slaughterhouse. A different video was shot for it...

Up tomorrow: A hip-hop legend gets employed.