Songoftheday 3/21/24 - When they ask I mention my baby girl in the interviews now, and I don't bring the problems from the 90's into 2 thou'....

 

 

"Into You" - Fabolous featuring Ashanti or Tamia

from the albums Street Dreams (Fabolous 2003) and More (Tamia 2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (one week) 

Weeks in the Top-40: 24

 

Today's song comes from rapper Fabolous, who scored his first top ten crossover hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the spring of 2003 with "Can't Let You Go".  The second single from his Street Dreams album was "Into You", which on the set featured R&B singer Ashanti, who then was riding high with her own top ten hit "Rock Wit U (Aww Baby)". The record sampled the song "So Into You" from Canadian R&B singer Tamia, who in turn sampled the Commodores' album track "Say Yeah", giving Tamia, her producers Tim (Kelly) and Bob (Robinson) as well as Commodores Lionel Richie and Ronald LaPread writing credit along with the rapper (under his birth name Johnathan Jackson). However when it came time to put out a retail single as well as a music video, Ashanti's label Murder Inc. refused to allow it (perhaps not to pilfer on her own promotion of her album). So instead, Fabolous went to the source and got Tamia to re-record her vocals for the new track. In the meantime she had landed her own first (and last) top ten pop hit with "Stranger In My House" in the spring of 2001, but was still in the progress of recording her next album More. The lyrics have Fabolous delivering love verses, though some are boastful promises of blingery and some as cringe as "any dude with you, he better be a kin of you now, nd I ain't jealous it's the principle now". The rapper's delivery is laid back and smooth to match the theme, while Tamia shows she's a more powerful singer than Ashanti in the ad libs though the cooing chorus is indiscernible. The production from DJ Clue and Ken "DURO" Ifill accentuates the synth-bass interpolating the earlier hit. The music video finds the pair performing separately while Fabolous is macking on a different model that looks SO much like the singer....

On Billboard magazine's Hot 100, both Tamia and Ashanti shared billing with Fabolous, since the radio was playing both versions, and reached the top ten in September of 2003, while rising to #6 on their R&B/Hip-Hop Singles list. On the radio, the song peaked at #15 on Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 chart, #5 on the Mainstream R&B list, #2 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format, and was Fab's first hit at Dance Airplay radio at #19. Internationally, the single went to #4 in Australia, and made the top-40 in the the United Kingdom (#18), Netherlands (#37), and Ireland (#39).

Later that year, Fabolous released a companion "mixtape" called More Street Dreams, Pt. 2, which contained a new single, "Make U Mine" with Mike Shorey, which went to #93 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart. 

When Tamia released More in the spring of 2004, she included their single version on the set, which came in as her highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #17, as well as on their R&B Albums list at #4. The next single pulled from More was "Officially Missing You", which went to #4 on the Dance Club Play chart, as well as #31 on Billboard's R&B Singles list, but stalled down at #83 on the Hot 100. That was followed by "Questions", which rose to #40 on the R&B chart while "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #112. Lastly, "Still", which stalled at #83 on the R&B Singles chart, was transformed into a club track that went to #34 on the Dance Club Play chart.

This will be Tamia's last time in the series, but Fabolous and Ashanti will be back.

(5/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's the album version which featured Ashanti...

And finally, Fabolous and Tamia performing for an awards show...

Up tomorrow: The second Idol arrives in the evening.