Songoftheday 09/17/24 - I'm loving how you look in my eyes swinging them hips when you pass, I'm visualizing my name tattooed on that a-, baby...

 

 

"Wanna Get To Know You" - G-Unit featuring Joe

from the album Beg For Mercy (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #15 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 11

 

Today's song comes from the hip-hop collective G-Unit, put together by one of the biggest rappers of the time 50 Cent, along with Young Buck and Tony Banks.  With momentum from the former's huge #1 pop hits, the group scored a top-20 crossover single at the close of 2003 with "Stunt 101" from their first album together Beg For Mercy. For the follow-up, they leaned heavily on pop potential by bringing on R&B singer Joe for the second single from the set "Wanna Get To Know You". Written by the trio and Joe, the song samples Marvin Gaye's "Come Live With Me Angel" from his romantic classic I Want You album from 1976. Each of the three rappers has a different dilemma with a woman, with Young Buck first tries his best to win over a hesitant propect, followed by Banks who is trying to keep things casual with his own. 50 Cent comes in at the end to just woo his lady promising sexual and material favors, while all through the track Joe croons the title chorus, interchanging the f-word with know. The production from Andy "Red Spyda" Thelusma relies heavily on the sample to provide the retro-soul feel, and it works better then it should. For the music video the foursome are macking at various parties with apparently interchangeable women as well as the insertion of future SOTD rapper the Game at the behest of the label, who wasn't on this record but will be in the series soon enough...

 

"Wanna Get To Know You" became the second (and so far last) top-40 hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in April of 2004, while peaking at #10 on their R&B Singles list, spending a half-year (26 weeks) on the latter, as well as getting to #5 on the Rap Songs list. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in Switzerland (#20), New Zealand (#26), the United Kingdom (#27), Australia (#30), and Ireland (#34).  

The third song from the Beg For Mercy album to make the charts was "Smile", which spent 20 weeks on Billboard's R&B chart but stalled down at #72. Lastly, "Poppin' Them Things", which originally was put out before "Wanna Get To Know You", creeped on to the R&B chart at #66, but eventually became their most streamed song as a group. 

 

Later in the spring of 2004, another collab between Joe and G-Unit, with Joe taking top billing, "Ride Wit U", came out. The track stopped at #56, and hit #22 on the R&B chart, but its biggest success was in the UK where it crested at #12.  

After this album ran its course, 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, and Young Buck tried to ride the wave with separate solo albums. All three will be back to the series on their own as leads. Also, former member Tony Yayo, who went to jail during their success, released his own set with a single that almost made the top-40 at #48, "So Seductive" with 50 Cent. 

In 2008, Young Buck left acrimoniously during the recording of the collective's second and most recent full-length album T*O*S (Terminate On Sight), though he appears on the record along with a returning Tony Yayo. While the set entered at #4 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #2 on the R&B Albums list, it sold significantly less that the predecessor. Two singles of substance came from the set, with the second, "I Like The Way She Do It", making it to #54 on the R&B Singles chart, #23 on the Rap Singles list, and #95 on the Hot 100. (Young Buck was relegated as a "featured artist" on the track.)

All the members of G-Unit, including Young Buck reunited ($$$) in 2014, and went on and released two EPs (extended play singles) of material on the G-Unit label, with both The Beast (#27) and The Beauty Of Independence (#17) reaching the top-20 on the Billboard 200. There are talks about a second reunion.

(3/10)

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Here's G-Unit and Joe appearing on MTV's TRL Spring Break 2004...

Up tomorrow: Philly rap duo finds an untoppable romance.