Songoftheday 4/8/24 - Is that your ass or your mama half reindeer?

 

 

"Shake Ya Tailfeather" - Nelly, P. Diddy, & Murphy Lee

from the album Bad Boys II (Original Soundtrack) and Murphy's Law (both 2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (four weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 27

 

Today's song comes from a trio of rappers, two of which dominated the crossover pop scene in the beginning of the 2000s. Nelly was riding high off his second album Nellyville, which spun off two massive #1 hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "Hot In Herre" and "Dilemma" along with the top-3 hit "Air Force Ones", which included his "St. Lunatics" crew which included Murphy Lee, who is featured on this new track. Along for the ride is Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, whose last album had spun off both parts of his "I Need A Girl" single to the top ten, and was a feature on B2K's #1 Hot 100 hit "Bump, Bump, Bump".  Nelly, Diddy, and Murphy's collaboration would be for the Bad Boys II buddy-cop movie starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, which Combs' Bad Boy label released the soundtrack. The initial Bad Boys soundtrack (on Work Records) from 1995 produced two hits with Diana King's "Shy Guy" and Jon B. with Babyface's top ten "Someone To Love". The rollout for the second set, which sported a bevy of A-list acts, came months before the movie, with the zombie collab "Realest Ni**as" with the late Notorious B.I.G. and 50 Cent entering Billboard's R&B Singles chart at the close of 2002 and eventually rising to #30, while "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #106. The new year brought Jay-Z with the "sequel" to his "Excuse Me Miss" hit called "La La La (Excuse Me Again)", which made the R&B top-40 at #37, while also "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #112. That was followed by rapper Freeway's "Flipside", which peaked at #40 on the R&B Singles chart and popped on the Hot 100 at #95. 

"Shake Ya Tailfeather", which gave Nelly, Diddy, and Murphy equal billing, was written by Nelly (aka Cornell Haynes), Lee (aka Tohri Harper) and "ghost writer" Varick Smith along with producer Jayson Bridges. Nelly's first verse is macking on what I assume is either a club girl or a stripper, hyping her up though by the end explaining she's just one of the crowd of various ethnicities he's "vibing" with. Diddy's second verse narrows it down to definitely being a stripper, while Murphy Lee wraps it up with a bevy of brand name brags. But it's Nelly that's the star of the show, as his flow fits perfect with the back and forth groove. But honestly it's cohesive, and while it's a toss-off product to promote a movie, it caught the ear of the public, and the trio found themselves back on top of the pop and R&B charts. The music video certainly goes for the big-budget late MTV-video crowd, with a long intro...

"Shake Ya Tailfeather" spent a month at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 in September of 2003, which was even better than its performance on the R&B Singles list, where it took a week at #3, though it topped the Rap Singles list for three weeks. On the radio, the song spent three weeks at #1 on both the Mainstream Top-40 and Mainstream R&B airplay charts, took a week atop the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format, and made it to #28 on the Dance Airplay list. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Australia (#3), New Zealand (#3), Norway (#7), Denmark (#9), Croatia (#9), the United Kingdom (#10), and Switzerland (#10). It also hit the top-40 in Ireland (#13), Canada (#16 Sales), Sweden (#17), Italy (#19), the Netherlands (#21), Belgium (#22 Flanders/#37 Wallonia), Germany (#26), and Austria (#29). The Bad Boys II soundtrack, released in July of that year, topped the Billboard 200 sales tally as well as the R&B Albums chart for four weeks on each, going on to sell over a million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "Shake Ya Tailfeather" won the prize for Best Duo/Group Rap Performnce.

A final single from the album, "Girl I'm A Bad Boy" by rapper Fat Joe and P. Diddy with Dre (not the "Dr." but producer Andre Lyon), went to #69 on the R&B Singles chart while "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #122. 

The hit would eventually find itself on Murphy Lee's debut solo album Murphy's Law, which came out in October of 2003. Another single from the record will bring Lee back to the series, and the other two will be back of course.

(5/10)

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The threesome performed the song on The Tonight Show...

And lastly, Nelly and Murphy in concert in 2013...

Up tomorrow: Mexican singer and Bronx rapper detail their preferences.