Songoftheday 09/27/24 - … 24, 34, 46, good and thick and once you get it she'll work wit it...

 

 

"Freek-A-Leek" - Petey Pablo

from the album Still Writing In My Diary: 2nd Entry (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 26

 

Today's song comes from rapper Petey Pablo (real name Moses Barrett), who scored his first hit in the autumn of 2001 with "Raise Up", which hit the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart. After a couple more minor R&B hits from his debut album on Jive Records, Diary Of A Sinner: 1st Entry, Petey recorded a track for the movie Drumline, "Club Banger", which popped on to the R&B Singles chart for a few weeks with a high of #98 in the beginning of 2003.

At the end of that year, Pablo returned with the lead single of his second (and so far last) album Still Writing In My Diary: 2nd Entry. "Freek-A-Leek", written by the rapper with Corey Evans and producer/rapper in his own right Jonathan "Lil' Jon" Smith. Lil Jon had originally pitched the backing track to rapper Mystikal, and when he turned it down, unwittingly gave it to both Pablo and singer Usher, for what would be his signature song "Yeah!". But Pablo, who had recorded it first, was already getting traction on the radio, and Jon (wisely) created an even better groove for "Yeah!". As for "Freek-A-Leek", it's a typical strip club-ready crunk jam, as Petey regales the loose ladies that surround him and what specifically they do for him. You can definitely pick out what Usher was originally going to do with "Yeah!" here, but honestly his is so similar but improved it's like Petey ended up with the lesser of the two. But that Lil Jon production is the best thing going here, and especially with the course lyrical plotline which was pretty alienating to a lot, but still enough to grant Pablo his biggest hit as a lead artist...

"Freek-A-Leek" rose to the top ten on Billboard's Hot 100 in July of 2004, while climbing to #5 on their R&B/Hip Hop Singles chart and #2 on the Rap Singles list. On the radio, the song peaked at #17 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart and at #2 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single climbed to #13 on the Canadian Airplay chart. The Still Writing In My Diary album, released in May of that year, went to #4 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #3 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a half-million copies. 

A second single from the record, "Vibrate" with rapper Rasheeda, failed to ride the momentum of the hit, only spending a couple weeks on Billboard's R&B Singles chart with a high of #86. Petey then got a second break by a feature on R&B singer Ciara's single "Goodies", which topped the Hot 100 and R&B singles lists. After a final single from the soundtrack to the movie Step Up, "Show Me The Money", which hit #58 on the Hot 100 and missed the R&B Singles chart altogether, Pablo was cut free from Jive.

 

After a couple of shelved albums on Death Row Records, Petey was about to return in the summer of 2010 with his own indie label Carolina Music Group, but shortly after releasing the single "Get Low", Pablo was arrested and convicted of bringing stolen weapons on a plane.  He spent a few years in prison for this, which effective derailed any mainstream career he had. His most recent album, Keep It Goin', came out in 2018 to little notice. This past May, a new single, "Let Me Get It", arrived.

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A remix of the song was made with rappers Twista and Jermaine Dupri...

Tomorrow I'll roll out my top hits of this week, then on Monday Song of the Day will return with that loser/winner of the Lil Jon groove, who is (pretty soon probably) on fire.