Songoftheday 2/20/24 - We gonna pop open a bottle of the Hypnotiq, no more time waste let's get this party started...

 

 

"Snake" - R. Kelly featuring Cam'ron and Big Tigger

from the album Chocolate Factory (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 9

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer/songwriter/producer and current sex crimes felon R. Kelly, whose 2003 album Chocolate Factory had landed a huge hit with "Ignition (Remix)" which spent five weeks in the runner-up spot on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the spring of 2003.  Two more cuts from the album, "Step In The Name Of Love" and "Who's That" featuring Fat Joe both got enough urban radio airplay to place on Billboard's R&B Singles chart, with the former eventually being on this series and the latter stopping at #65 on the R&B list. The second "official" single from the record would be "Snake", which on the album features radio personality Darian Morgan, aka "Big Tigger". Big Tigger, who was on the Washington DC station WPGC, also was a host on the BET Network, so his connections (not unlike contemporary Angie Martinez) got him placed on the record to boost the troubles-are-just-starting Kelly. But for the "single" remix, rapper Cam'ron was also added to the record. Cam'ron had scored a pair of top ten crossover hits in 2002 with "Oh Boy" and "Hey Ma". Written by Kelly and Morgan, the record tried to jump on the Caribbean-Indian "fusion" beats that had been recently successful for acts like Sean Paul and Wayne Wonder. Kelly is a master in the studio, so it sounds great, but he totally sounds out of place vocally on this. The single remix leans further into Arabian-style sounds, and the music video lands all three in the desert full of belly dancers....

"Snake" became the second top-40 crossover hit from Chocolate Factory in June of 2003, while climbing to #9 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song peaked at #7 on the Mainstream R&B airplay chart, and #10 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single made it to #10 in the United Kingdom (elsewhere in the world it would share a single with "Thoia Thong", which I'll cover when that song comes up). 

This would be Big Tigger's final time on the Hot 100, and while Cam'ron would have a few minor hits, he would have to wait until 2013 to place in the top-40 again. He would end up suing Kelly for not receiving writer's royalties for his verse on the remix.

As for Kelly, both he and the album will be back to the series.

(3/10)

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Here's the original album version edited to remove all the rap from it, and sported a different and punchier production...

 

 Kelly performed part of "Snake" on a medley he did at the BET Awards in 2003...

Up tomorrow: Female rapper waves the wand.