Songoftheday 8/29/24 - One here comes the two to the three to the four, everybody drunk out on the dance floor...
"Tipsy" - J-Kwon
from the album Hood Hop (2004)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 26
Today's song comes from rapper Jerrell Jones, who records under the moniker J-Kwon. Growing up in the St. Louis area, he was actually discovered and signed by Atlanta hip-hop icon Jermaine Dupri, who took Jones on to his So So Def label on Arista Records. At the start of 2004, J-Kwon released his debut single from his first album Hood Hop, "Tipsy". Written by Jones with Joe Kent and Mark Williams from the Trackboyz production team that handled the record, the lyrics place him at the club, with women drawn to his fame that he hasn't even achieved yet. Between posturing his hardcore cred (which he never really built at that point before bragging about his sexual prowess, at the expense of any concern or attention to the women involved. At least the focus is on drinking, with only peripheral mention of anything else (beside passing pot). The production, with steals from Queen's "We Will Rock You" groove liberally, but does deliver a bouncy party vibe that stands out. In return, J-Kwon got his first, biggest, and really only big hit...
"Tipsy" stopped just short of the top of Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in April of 2004, while also doing the same on their R&B Singles chart, while spending five weeks at #1 on the Rap Siingles list On the radio, the song hit #10 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, and #2 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in the United Kingdom (#4), Australia (#5), Canada (#6 radio), Ireland (#8), and New Zealand (#9), and made the top 40 in Germany (#17), the Netherlands (#18), and Belgium (#24 Flanders). The Hood Hop album, released in April as the single was cresting, peaked at #7 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 single to make the charts from the album was the title track "Hood Hop", which tried to go a little harder, albeit with the same stomping beat. While it spent 20 weeks on the R&B Singles chart, it only made it to #52, missing the Hot 100 altogether. That was followed by the more laidback "You & Me" with singer Sadiyyah, which would've been a better radio choice. It did made it to the Hot 100 at #58, but stalled at #70 on the R&B list.
In 2005, J-Kwon returned with a song from the soundtrack to the Ice Cube franchise movie XXX: State Of The Union, "Get XXX'd", featuring hitmaker-of-the-time Petey Pablo and newcomer Ebony Eyez, which spent a month at the lower level of the R&B Singles chart with a high of #95. But shortly after, Arista folded, and J-Kwon went went indie, putting out Hood Hop 2, re-released with EMI distribution as Hood Hop 2.5 which slipped on to the R&B Albums chart at #60, but was unnoticed at radio. His most recent regular studio album release, a self-titled affair, came in 2010 under the Gracie imprint on One Records.
J-Kwon had been mostly quiet on the scene since, but in 2020 alt-country singer Shaboozey interpolated "Tipsy" for his breakthrough single "A Bar Song (Tipsy)", which currently is the longest stay at #1 on the Hot 100 this year, while topping the Country Songs airplay chart for a month, a milestone feat for a black artist in the genre that is pretty damn homogenous. The song also got to #2 on my own personal weekly chart.
(4/10)
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Now to 2024, where Shaboozey took "Tipsy" for his "Bar Song" to the top of the charts...
Lastly, at the BET Awards this year, Shaboozey brought J-Kwon for a mash-up of their respective hits...
Up tomorrow: A-list rapper cleans up his act.
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