A new feature for the R&B and Urban forum (I hope if you are all kind and comment each week :P), each Thursday we get a flashback into the chart archives with some of the biggest urban classics.

 

This week's selections

 

2001: City High - What Would You Do?

 

 

Urban at its finest, turning despair, bleak prospects and taboo subjects into a hit single. The hard hitting lyrics offer sympathy for single mothers forced into prostitution for the sake of their kids. Unfortunately, City High were a rare breed of two-hit wonder but this is certainly their biggest and most remembered hit.

 

2002: Ja Rule ft. Ashanti - Always On Time

 

 

"Always On Time" spent its third and final week at its chart peak of #6 in the UK charts on this week in 2002! A solid classic, which has been thrust back into the spotlight thanks to a prominent sample on RAYE's single "Decline". For me, it still sounds fab after all this time <3

 

2008: Kelly Rowland - Work

 

 

It's been 10 years (!!!) since Kelly Rowland's signature hit "Work" was riding high in the charts. This is still absolutely incredible. It was one of my favourite songs of that year and certainly favourite Kelly single. It makes me feel so old that this is already 10 years old :s

How is Work 10 years old!!!!! What a bop

Ja Rule just seemed to disappear after 'Wonderful' shame. Always On Time that is an urban classic.

 

Work, yes. Kelly Rowland this was such a tune. 10 years wow. I always prefer the Freemasons Remix to this.

 

 

'Always On Time' is such a bonafide classic, still sounds good to his day. Interesting to compare to the current songs by Mabel & Not3s - they are clearly influenced by songs like this! Never heard the Kelly Rowland song, but after listening to it here I have definitely heard it before... the City High song is very strong too.

I haven’t heard that City High song in AGES but it still goes off

I only really properly got into "What Would You Do?" when Bastille covered it on one of their early mixtapes. A great song though, very much akin to Kelly Rowland's other signature hit, "Stole".

 

"Work" is of course an absolute classic and kickstarted a decade of excellent songs named similarly.

 

Love "Always on Time" but despise its usage by RAYE last year.

This week's selections

 

As we had the BRIT Awards this week, with urban making a major breakthrough in the form of Stormzy winning Best Male and Best Album, I thought I'd dedicate this week's selections to some great past performances from the BRIT Awards themselves.

 

1999: Whitney Houston - It's Not Alright But It's Okay

 

 

An absolute Whitney fave of mine and she came to the BRITs in 1999 to perform this at the time of release and giving it a big debut of #3 in the charts!

 

2010: Jay-Z & Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind

 

 

Jay-Z took to the stage in 2010 to perform his mega hit and ode to New York "Empire State of Mind" with Alicia Keys back in 2010. Jay-Z also won International Male Solo Artist that night, topping a fantastic few months for him with the release of his album 'The Blueprint 3'.

 

2015: Kanye West - All Day

 

 

And I could NOT let this post finish without featuring Kanye's infamous performance of "All Day" from just three years back. Kanye didn't quite get the memo not to repeatedly use 'n****' throughout his performance which resulted in ITV muted practically the entire performance. History repeated itself with Skepta getting slightly muted in 2017 in his performance of "Shutdown" and now again in 2018 practically all of Kendrick's performance was muted too. One day we will make a through a pure hip-hop song without getting muted. One day it must happen!!! Also that flame thrower thing still has me shook. What an iconic performance *.*

Can't believe I missed this thread, last week's selections are all faves!!! 'Empire State Of Mind' is a classic too :heart:

This week's selections

 

2002: Truth Hurts ft. Rakim - Addictive

 

 

The first selection of my post this week comes from one hit wonder, Truth Hurts. She had a fairly big worldwide hit with "Addictive" back in 2002, jumping on the (at the time) new trend of classic Indian influences in mainstream Western pop music. This is an absolute go to classic for me from the early noughties and whilst very of its time sound-wise, it's still a good bop.

 

2004: Cassidy ft. R. Kelly - Hotel

 

 

Whilst R. Kelly isn't the best human being, he has churned out the tunes and a number of huge urban staples. "Hotel" is one of the less widely remembered ones, which he provided a feature for back in 2004. It's such a classic for me and is always up there with R. Kelly hugely remembered hits.

 

2010: Timbaland ft. Justin Timberlake - Carry Out

 

 

With Justin Timberlake making his comeback recently, I thought it fitting to include him in some form. The lightning partnership of Timbaland and Timberlake continued in 2010 with JT provided guest vocals, yet again, on one of his tracks. For me, "Carry Out" was the best from Timbaland's Shock Value II album and tided us over during the early dry spell of no JT from the charts.

Loooove 'Hotel'. Although, I prefer his 2nd single 'Get No Better'. I was gutted when that wasn't a huge smash :(

Great idea :wub:

 

Addictive = 8.5/10 I almost forgot her and this song (despite buying the single at the time). One hit wonder!

Hotel = 8/10 Not a fan of Cassidy but this is a nice tune that really has that 00's vibe imo!

Carry out = 9/10 I love Timbaland as a producer (esp. his work for Aaliyah). As a 'solo' artist he his a 'hit or miss' for me. This one is a HIT that deserved to be a bigger one in the official charts.

Edited March 3, 20187 yr by PINKFUNQ

Ooh this is a great idea Ben :wub: all three of those songs in the OP are TUNES, particularly 'What Would You Do?' which was like the original 'Rockabye' *.* then my favourite from the second lot is Kanye West's 'All Day'! I actually feel like I haven't listened to that in a couple of years (need to re-listen!) but I loved it at the time and was gutted when his performance was muted so much at the BRITS :lol: poor Kendrick suffering the same fate this year. My favourite from this latest batch is 'Addictive', I discovered that on Radio 1's 'One Hit Wonders of the Millennium' show and instantly loved it *.* we need that Indian influences trend to come back to the chart pronto tbh.

Addicted got into my head after hearing it on a Hip Hop Samples of 2000's video.

Hotel. Pretty good, don't have anything else to say about it.

Carry Out is a guilty pleasure of mine. I remember first hearing this song back in April 2010 on a Greek music channel, around the same time it entered the UK Top 40.

Hope people don't mind me reviving this:

 

This week:

2007: Kanye West ft T-Pain- Good Life

 

 

This, the second UK single from 'Graduation' which featured T-Pain and peaked at #23. Which was about Kanye and T-Pain celebrating the finer things in life and acknowledging their success. It's still a underrated song this from Kanye.

 

 

2008: Timbaland ft Keri Hilson & Nicole Scherzinger- Scream

 

 

Such as a sultry sexy song produced by Timbaland and those two sirens, Keri Hilson and Nicole Scherzinger.

 

 

2007: Omarion ft Timbaland- Ice Box

 

 

Some guest vocals from Timbaland and Solange Knowles in the music video who played Omarion's girlfriend. Perfect chilled tune this.

GREAT choice there in Ice Box, absolutely loved that at the time. And who knew he'd come back with that monster track Post To Be nearly a decade later!

I miss ALL of these songs :heart:

 

I think around 2007/2008 was when I started listening to radio frequently and my local station was of the pop format but had a ton of urban/rhythmic influences, so songs like these were played on the daily.

This week:

2003: Snoop Dogg ft Pharrell & Charlie Wilson- Beautiful

 

 

 

How this only got to #22 back in the summer of 2003. I'll never know, really thought this charted higher. Filmed in Rio. This is such as a sultry summer tune. Seem to remember this was a slow burner hit.

 

 

2006: Jay-Z- Show Me What You Got

 

 

 

 

A bit of a possibly unknown track from Jay-Z here which released in late 2006. Just seemed to remember this being played on some sport promos. Let me know what you think. This only peaked at #38 in the UK when it was released.

 

 

2006: Busta Rhymes ft Keils & will.i.am- I Love My Chick

 

 

 

 

The music video based on 2005 film "Mr & Mrs Smith" here. Good throwback here this. Peaked at #6 in the UK.

Kelly Rowland Work :wub:

Beautiful is such a tune :wub: The type of male R&B I adore.

'Beautiful' is one of my favourite summer songs!

 

Thanks Mack for re-starting this too.