Songoftheday 11/08/24 - If you know anything about me then you know I'm a baller, if I don't hit the first night I ain't gon' call her...

 

"On Fire" - Lloyd Banks

from the album The Hunger For More (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 14

 

(Apologies for the day off to recoup after the beginning of our upcoming fascist nation.)

 

Today's song comes from rapper Christopher Charles Lloyd, who records under the alias Lloyd Banks. Lloyd grew up in Queens, New York, where he joined rappers 50 Cent, Tony Yayo, and Young Buck to form the group G-Unit. After 50 became a huge star with his solo album Get Rich or Die Tryin', he brought G-Unit back together for an album, Beg For Mercy, which spun off two top-20 hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "Stunt 101" at the end of 2003 and "Wanna Get To Know You" in the spring of 2004.  

After putting out a couple mixtapes on his own, Banks put out his debut solo album The Hunger For More in the early summer of 2004 on 50 Cent's G-Unit label on Interscope Records. The lead single from the record was "On Fire". Written by Banks, 50 Cent, and producers Eminem, Luis Resto, and Kwame "K1 Mil" Holland, the lyrics have Lloyd brag about his fast-found wealth in verse one, while chiding the ladies in the second who won't give it up right away. 50 joins him on the chorus for an updated take on the Nelly theme. The production uses a sample of the 1968 underground jazz-rock track "The Champ" from British keyboardist Alan Hawkshaw under the Mohawks name, giving him writing credit as well. The result is smoother than that genre was running at the time, perfect for cruising around town despite the horrid misogyny in it....

"On Fire" ended up doing better than G-Unit, reaching the top ten on the Hot 100 in July of 2004, while peaking at #4 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart and #2 on the Rap Songs list. On the radio, the song rose to #29 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, #3 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop airplay list, and #3 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in Switzerland (#18), the United Kingdom (#19), Canada (#21 airplay), Ireland (#25), and Germany (#36).  The Hunger For More album, released in June of that year, did the remarkable feat of topping the Billboard 200 for its first two weeks (a rarity for a rap set), and topped the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list for five weeks, going on to sell over a million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2005, "On Fire" was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance, losing to Jay-Z's "99 Problems". 

Lloyd and the album will return to the series.

(3/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's Banks appearing on the Pepsi Smash show...

and lastly, from 2004 on the Jimmy Kimmel Show...

Tomorrow I'll roll out my top tunes from this week, then on Sunday I'll catch up on SOTD with the problematic prodigy performing biblical travels.