Songoftheday 5/9/24 - They don't make us or break us, when they make-up to break up...

 

 

"Can't Stop, Won't Stop" - Young Gunz

from the albums The Chain Gang Vol. 2 (Various Artists) (2003) and Tough Luv (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 11

 

Today's song comes from the hip-hop duo Young Gunz, who got their start in Philadelphia as childhood friends. After appearing on a Jay-Z album, "Young Chris" Ries and Hanif "Neef" Muhammad were signed to his Roc-A-Fella label. They were in a rap-style movie State Property in 2002 and were on the soundtrack, which topped Billboard magazine's R&B Albums chart and peaked at #14 on the all-genre Billboard 200 sales tally. 

The following year, a second album from the State Property collective was released, and this time wasn't a soundtrack. Also, Young Gunz had the opening cut on the record, which was released as a single. "Can't Stop Won't Stop" was written by the duo and producer Darrell "Digga" Branch, and featured samples from Grandmaster Flash's "Superrappin'" and Heavy D's "Gyrlz They Love Me", which gave the former's Melvin Glover and the latter's Dwight "Heavy D" Myers and Marlon "Marley Marl" Williams credit. The lyrics have Young Chris boasting about his premature sexual prowess, while Neef brags about their young (supposed) wealth and attractive skills. Mind you, they were both approaching just twenty years old, so old enough to not be creepy but too young to claim any real experience, like they have "grown women my momma age f*ck me all kinda ways". Yeahhhhh. But either way, their flow is almost completely drowned out by the most annoying syncopated synth beat that sounds like a cross between plinking your cheeks and the most demented Pong video game ever. The music video placed the pair at a "women's prep school", where they hold court and weirdly get felt up by who I believe is the producer on the track....

The simplistic gimmicks worked, with "Can't Stop Won't Stop" reaching the top 20 on Billboard's Hot 100 in October of 2003, while peaking at #10 on their R&B Singles chart and #6 on the Rap Songs list. On the radio, the song rose to #9 on the Mainstream R&B airplay chart as well as on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. The Chain Gang, Vol. 2 album, released in August of that year, came in at #6 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and spent a week at #1 on the R&B Albums list. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "Can't Stop Won't Stop " was nominated for Best Rap Duo/Group Performance, which went to Nelly, P. Diddy, and Murphy Lee for "Shake Ya Tailfeather".

A remix of "Can't Stop Won't Stop", which featured rapper Chingy who would be huge in due time, appeared on Young Gunz' debut album Tough Luv. 

Young Gunz will be back to the series.

(2/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

A second video was shot for the remix to the song, which featured Chingy and appeared on their Tough Luv album...

and lastly, performing live in their hometown...

Up tomorrow, another singing competition show produces a star.