Songoftheday 4/23/24 - I Know this chick named Nicole they call her bougie, didn't want to shop nowhere but Gucci...

 

 

"Let's Get Down" - Bow Wow featuring Baby

from the album Unleashed (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 9

 

Today's song comes from rapper and actor Shad Moss, who had gone under the alias of "Lil' Bow Wow" when he broke through on the music scene with his debut album Beware Of Dog, which placed four singles on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, with two of them crossing over to the top-40 on the Hot 100 in 2000-2001 with "Bounce With Me" and "Bow Wow (That's My Name)". Later in 2001 he returned with his sophomore effort on Jermaine Dupri's So So Def Records, Doggy Bag, which sold over a million copies and peaked at #11 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #2 on the R&B Albums list. However, radio was much cooler to him, with both its singles being modrest hits - the bigger of the two, "Take Ya Home", stopped at #21 on the R&B Singles chart and stalled at #72 on the Hot 100. It was a bit jarring to have this literal child cavorting on video with much older models writhing around. 

Moss shed the "Lil'" to just become Bow Wow for his third record Unleashed, which came out on Columbia Records proper in 2003. The lead single from the set was "Let's Get Down", which brought in rival label CEO and part-time rapper Bryan Williams of Cash Money Records, who at that time was still recording under the moniker "Baby". Baby, who had hit the top-40 as half of the duo Big Tymers with "Still Fly", had subsequently landed his own solo top-40 crossover hit in "Do That..." in the beginning of 2003. The record was written by Bow Wow with producer Phalon "Jazze Pha" Alexander along with Rahman Griffin and Clifford Harris, the latter who featured on Bone Crusher's top-40 hit "Never Scared" and eventually becoming the rap superstar T.I.. The lyrics have Bow Wow macking on a (hopefully age-appropriate) girl, and showering her with the high life, but by the end of the verse he's kicked her to the curb and ready to make moves on yet another one. After revolving through a few, Baby comes in at the bridge and attempts to set up this 16 year old with a 25 year old! The whole affair is set to plant the image of him as a ladies man, but it takes more that swagger to do that. The production from Jazze Pha is sufficiently bouncy and adult, but Moss' age clearly comes through here. And the music video evokes all the concerns of "grooming", with Bow Wow looking like he has never driven a car even though he's literally at the DMV. But it was clean enough for the kiddos to be able to get into without getting in trouble, so there's that. With Baby's clout and Columbia's push, Bow Wow found himself back in the pop top-40...

"Let's Get Down" became Bow Wow's third top-40 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in September of 2003, while peaking at #12 on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song hit #11 on the Mainstream R&B chart and #8 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single was a minor hit in the United Kingdom at #93. The Unleashed album, released in August of that year, came in at #3 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #4 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a half-million copies.

The second and final single from the record was "My Baby", which was a smoother soul affair featuring the R&B vocal group Jagged Edge and co-written and produced by Jermaine Dupri himself. While the song went to #17 on Billboard's R&B chart, it stopped just short of the top-40 on the Hot 100 at #42. 

Bow Wow and Baby (under a different name) will be back to the series.

(2/10)

Here's Bow Wow performing the song of the Orlando Jones show...

Up tomorrow: A nu-metal band score a surprise top-40 hit for the only time in their decades-long career.