Songoftheday 10/12/23 - I like the all-white high-top strap with the gum bottom, there's somethin' bout 'em now dirty that's why I got 'em...

 

 

"Air Force Ones" - Nelly featuring Kyjuan, Ali, and Murphy Lee

from the album Nellyville (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (four weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 18

 

Today's song comes from Midwestern rapper Nelly, whose sophomore effort Nellyville had already proved to be a massive success, spinning off two #1 hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 that spent a combined total of seventeen weeks at the top with "Hot In Herre" and "Dilemma".  For the third single from the record, Nelly reunited with three members of his St. Lunatics posse, who had collectively had a top ten album in 2001 with Free City. The fourth, City Spud, who had joined Nelly on the latter's hit "Ride Wit Me", was in prison for a robbery that ended in a shooting. One of the St. Lunatics, Ali (Jones), released a solo album, Heavy Starch, in the spring of 2002, which went to #24 on the Billboard 200. A single from the set, "Boughetto" featuring Murphy Lee, snuck onto Billboard's R&B Singles chart at #97. "Air Force Ones", was written by Nelly (under given name Cornell Haynes along with "Lunatics" Ali, Murphy Lee (under given name Tohri Harper), and Kyjuan (aka Robert Cleveland). The track is basically an ad for the insanely popular sneaker made by the Nike brand. The first three verses have Nelly, then Kyjuan, then Ali describe their favorite version of the shoe, followed by Murphy ditching the trend at first by just saying everyone should at least have one, before a second verse from him reveals he'll take the white on blue because a woman told him she liked them. Then Ali, Kyjuan, and Nelly get a second verse each as well, and they are so hype on fawning over the tennis shoe that you'd think they were paid for it. The production from St. Louis-based Trackboyz is rather basic, with a static beat that doesn't really do anything but provide a foundation for the four rappers. As a hype track, though, its refreshingly free of the guns, brags, and misogyny pervading the genre at the time, so that's a plus. The music video had the foursome on a local shopping spree along with a bunch of sportsball guys and rappers Big Tymers and WC...

"Air Force Ones" spent a month in the #3 position on Billboard's Hot 100 in January of 2003, while getting to #4 on their R&B Singles chart and topping the Rap Singles list for two weeks. On the radio, the song peaked at #10 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, spent a week at #1 on the Mainstream R&B list, and hit #2 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. (It didn't seem to be released anywhere else, as it didn't chart internationally.)

A fourth single from the album, "Pimp Juice", was a disjointed homage to prostitution, and unlike the other Nellyville singles, stalled at #58 on the Hot 100 and #27 on the R&B Singles list. 

This would be Ali and Kyjuan's last time in the top-40 on the Hot 100, but Murphy Lee and of course Nelly will be back to the series.

(4/10)

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Here's the quartet at the Apollo performing live...

Up tomorrow: Country guy proclaims paternity.