Songoftheday 10/14/24 - Ah sh** y'all done f***** up and let me in this b****, I'm just your average hood n**** with dreams of gettin' rich...

 

 

"Game Over (Flip)" - Lil' Flip

from the album U Gotta Feel Me (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #15 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 11

 

Today's song comes from Wesley Weston Jr. who performs under the nickname Lil' Flip.  Flip grew up in Houston, Texas, and while still in his late teens he was already making the rounds on the local rap circuit, and was signed to the indie label Sucka Free there. In 2000 he released his debut album The Leprechaun, which popped on to the national R&B Albums chart in Billboard magazine at #67. On that momentum Columbia Records partnered up with the small label to put out his next record Undaground Legend in 2002, which did much better, reaching #4 on the R&B Albums chart and #12 on the all-genre Billboard 200, going on to sell over a million copies. A single from the record, "The Way We Ball", became his first appearance on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart at #69. 

A year later, Flip was a guest on another up-and-coming rapper's record, David Banner's "Like A Pimp", which climbed to #15 on the R&B Singles chart and hit #48 on the all-genre Hot 100 in Billboard. In the spring 2004 he recorded a feature for Beyonce's top ten hit "Naughty Girl". Also, the rapper would return with his third album U Gotta Feel Me. The first single from the record was the arcade-themed taunt of "Game Over (Flip)". Written by Flip with producer Nick "Fury" Loftin, the verses are the usual new kid braggadocio with a sprinkle of hometown identification that was common at the time, with the second verse throwing names and brands around as well. The production is the southern "bounce" groove punctuated with sound effects taken from the popular-in-the-80s arcade game Pac-Man, which ended up with the rapper getting sued by the video game company, having to settle and probably seeing very little from this record. The music video has Flip inserted in his show and the afterparty...

"Game Over" became Lil Flip's first crossover hit, reaching the top-20 on Billboard's Hot 100 in May of 2004, while peaking at #8 on their R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart and #4 on their Rap Singles list. On the radio, the song hit #5 on the Mainstream R&B/HipHop Airplay chart and #9 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in New Zealand at #40. The U Gotta Feel Me album, released in March of that year, peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 and #2 on the R&B/Hip Hop Albums list, going on to sell over a million copies.

Lil' Flip and the album will be back to the series.

(3/10)

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Here's Flip appearing on BET performing the song..

Up tomorrow: Fast-talking rapper finds fleeting fame.