Episode Summary
In our second "One Hit Wonder?" episode, we're looking at the career of Montell Jordan. He's best known for his song "This Is How We Do It" but we're taking the time to shine a light on his other hits. Yes, he has more than one, and this episode is the proof. Let us know if you agree!
Transcript
Christina: Welcome back to They Reminisce Over You. I’m Christina.
Miguel: And I’m Miguel. On this episode, we’re doing another one of our "One Hit Wonder?" episodes. What that means is we’re going to be discussing acts that people perceive as one hit wonders, but we tend to think that they have more than one hit. The last episode that we did was about Sir Mix-A-Lot. So if you haven’t heard that, go check it out. Who are we talking about this week?
Christina: This week we are talking about, “This Is How We Do It.” Montell Jordan.
Miguel: Montell Jordan. Is he a one hit wonder? Let’s get to the bottom of it and find out. You ready?
Christina: Let’s do it.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: So I think this episode is almost kind of a reminder to myself, that he’s not a one hit wonder because I loathe this song.
Miguel: So the one hit or the perceived one hit is a song that you hate.
Christina: I hate it so much. I don’t even know why I hate it so much. But I hate it so much that I think I forgot about all the other songs. And let quick little story before we get into the song. So me and a few of my girlfriends, this is, I can’t even remember exactly when this was, we were at a club. So I’m thinking it’s probably somewhere around 2005-ish because it’s been awhile. That was the height of my clubbing times. Anyways. I can’t remember if we knew he was performing that night. It might’ve been like, one of these little like, Caribana parties or something. But when he came on stage to perform, there was just a lackluster response to him. And everyone was kind of like, eh. And it was just like, ugh, "This Is How We Do It." And then he started performing, you know, another song. We’re like, oh yeah, I like this song. Then he would perform another song. This is my shit. It was like, oh yeah. You know, people started to warm up and it was like, he got some hits.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: So even though that was, you know, a million years ago, I keep hearing this damn song on commercials and I don’t know, you just kind of hear it randomly.
Miguel: He performs his sporting events. It’s just all over the place. It’s part of pop culture now.
Christina: Right. So again, this is also kind of a reminder for myself that aside from that damn song, I actually like his music.
Miguel: Okay. I’m not gonna say I’m a huge Montell Jordan fan, but being from Los Angeles, L.A. is very heavy into car culture and Montell Jordan made music that really knocks in the car. So chances are, if it sounded good in the car, I’m gonna listen to it. Regardless of who it was. So that’s why I have a lot of Montell Jordan in my collection. Not necessarily because I think Montell Jordan is a greatest R&B singer of all time. Because he’s not in my opinion. But he served a purpose for me and that was to be the soundtrack of me driving around in L.A.
Christina: Well, for me, if the perception of him is he’s the "This Is How We Do It" guy, he’s not my favorite R&B singer either—
Miguel: Right.
Christina: But he’s more than that.
Miguel: Yeah. Definitely more than that.
Christina: Which is the point of this.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And so just doing research for this episode, I always tend to read YouTube comments just because I kind of want to see what quote “the people” are saying. So we’ll get into that in a bit, but let’s just backtrack a little bit.
Miguel: Alright.
Christina: To just discuss how this song became a big hit. And it was his first single so—
Miguel: Yeah, it was his first single, so he came out the gate with that.
Christina: Yeah, so, I mean, in terms of like, this being his first song, that’s pretty good.
Miguel: It is.
Christina: So I can see how it was a hit because he’s using the Slick Rick "Children’s Story." That’s an infectious beat. It’s also a recognizable beat. So if it was a hit before, chances are it’ll be a hit again, right?
Miguel: Right. It's hard to mess up eggs.
Christina: Some people do, according to you.
Miguel: Some people do. But it’s hard to mess up eggs.
Christina: So he even earned a Grammy award nomination for this song. Which is like, again, kind of crazy for your first single, right? So a little fun fact. Of course this was a number one hit because how could it become a one hit wonder if it didn’t go to number one, right? So to be expected, it was number one in Canada. Number one in the UK. US Billboard. It was also number one in Zimbabwe.
Miguel: Oh, that’s random.
Christina: Yup. I saw it on the, Wikipedia, so it must be true.
Miguel: Of course. Wikipedia is never wrong.
Christina: So I thought that was a little fun fact to throw out there.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: So yeah, it peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at number one and was on the charts for a total of 29 weeks. And the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs[1] also peaked at number one for a total 31 weeks. So, I mean, you have sort of the general population, as well as the R&B/hip-hop crowd.
Miguel: Yeah. Everybody was listening to it.
Christina: Everybody likes this song, right? Another thing I found interesting, which I never noticed before when I look at these Billboard charts is it shows the date, their highest peaking number. And so it peaked on the R&B charts on April 1st of, what was it? 1995?
Miguel: '95 or '96, somewhere in there.
Christina: Yeah, '95. So it peaked on April 1st on the R&B charts, but it peaked at number one, on April 15th on The Hot 100.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: So it took like, the general public—
Miguel: A little longer to catch on.
Christina: A little longer to catch on. And so that’s kind of like, the going theme for the rest of his songs.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: Where the Billboard Hot 100 would take a little bit longer to catch on. Which I think kind of makes sense when you think about what these charts kind of—
Miguel: Yeah, it does.
Christina: The listeners that these charts represent, right? And so I remember when it first came out, I did like it. It wasn’t like, my favorite song but I didn’t hate it the way I hate it now.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: So I’m not sure when exactly the switch happened. I don’t know if maybe it was just because it just became so big that, you know, you just kind of get tired of it.
Miguel: Yeah, because it’s played everywhere.
Christina: Yeah it was literally in some Hyundai commercials in Canada, Dish Network, Big Lots.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: In The General with Shaq.
Miguel: It’s in a commercial right now, but it’s always playing in the background, so I’d never pay attention to it. So I don’t know what it’s selling right now.
Christina: Yeah. So I don’t know if it’s the combination of it just being in these commercials and just kind of hearing it everywhere. And it’s just sounds so cheesy. Like Jock Jams or something.
Miguel: It’s probably on one of the Jock Jams albums because like—
Christina: Or Now, That's What I Call Music![2] or something.
Miguel: It, oh it’s definitely on those albums. But like I said, you hear it at all the sporting events. So it’s definitely on those type of albums.
Christina: Yeah. So it just, I hear it and it’s just so corny and cheesy to me. Like I just, I hate it.
Miguel: I’m not gonna say I hate it. It’s a cool song. It’s alright. I will never like, willingly choose to listen to it, but if it’s on, I’m not gonna turn it off—
Christina: Oh, I will.
Miguel: But I’m not gonna pay attention to it very closely either. I’m not gonna be rapping along with it.
Christina: Yeah. So back to what I was saying about just looking through the YouTube comments, just to kind of see what people are saying about it. And as with any other sort of like '90s, early 2000 songs, there’s always a bunch of like, "Oh, they don’t make music like this anymore." "Oh, takes me back to a good time." Blah, blah, blah. But the funny thing is so many people kept comparing him to today’s “mumble rappers.” "Oh, this is so much better than today’s rap, which is all mumble rap."
Miguel: He’s not a rapper.
Christina: He’s not a rapper.
Miguel: He’s a singer who threw a couple of rap verses on a few of his songs.
Christina: Which is what everybody was doing around that time. It was like, you might have one rap song or throw one verse in and stuff. Like, pretty much everybody was doing that in the ’90s.
Miguel: And you have people calling Bobby Brown a rapper for the same reason. Like, whenever he’s in the news, it’s like "rapper, Bobby Brown."
Christina: Like this makes no sense.
Miguel: He's not a rapper. Just cause he’s Black and you heard him rap once, it doesn’t make him a rapper.
Christina: You can’t really compare singing to quote “mumble rap.”
Miguel: Yeah. You think that rap was hot on "This Is How We Do It?"
Christina: Yeah. And then there’s that too. It’s like—
Miguel: That tells me everything that I need to know about you and your relation to hip hop.
Christina: Yeah. Just seeing all the comments of, you know, we kind of talked about this earlier, but just people like, "I don’t care if you’re Black, Asian, or White, everybody listened to this song." And the reason why I’m bringing that up is, you know, as we were saying, this is probably his most, not probably, it is his most commercially successful song, right? Because when I look through the comments for every other song, there was no, "It doesn’t matter if you’re a black, white, green, or yellow, everybody!" There was no comments like that. There was the usual like, "Oh, you know, they don’t make music like this anymore." But you didn’t hear this sort of like declaration of like, "This is for everybody."
Miguel: "This is a universal song."
Christina: So I found that pretty interesting.
Miguel: Well with that said, let’s talk about his other songs to prove that this man is not a one hit wonder.
Christina: To prove, and also to remind myself.
Miguel: Yes. To remind yourself and to let those out there know, who think he’s a one hit wonder that he isn’t.
[music break]
Christina: So the second single off of the same album was "Somethin’ 4 Da Honeyz[3]" and it did okay. It wasn’t, you know, the same kind of smash hit.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: But it did good enough to kind of show that like, okay, he can stick around for a little bit.
Miguel: Right. The thing about "Somethin’ 4 Da Honeyz" that I will always remember is the fight between Tha Dogg Pound and BG Knocc Out and Gangsta Dresta. Nate Dogg hit Dresta in the back of the head with the golf club at the end of the video shoot.
Christina: So the video is shot on a golf course.
Miguel: Yeah and just a bunch of random rappers that were signed to Def Jam. Local L.A. people were in it. So that’s why Tha Dogg Pound and Dresta were there. And a fight breaks out because of the beef between the two different crews. And you see a video, which is like, commentated by Redman and Method Man and Inspectah Deck of Nate Dogg cracking Dresta over the head with a golf club and you see the fight just breaking out and they’re chasing Nate around the golf course. He’s chasing other people. Somebody pulls out a gun and Method Man just walks over to the camera and goes, "I love this game." And that’s the thing that I always remember about "Somethin’ 4 Da Honeyz." I don’t even remember the song. I remember the fight more than anything else.
Christina: It’s a very typical, like, 1995 song.
Miguel: Yeah. Like I'd forgotten about how funny Montell Jordan is because he puts these little lines in it. Cause he was saying something about bring your girls—
Christina: I was just about to bring this up.
Miguel: And how there might be an ugly one, but bring her too.
Christina: He said, "Call up your girlfriends and you know there always tends to be an ugly one."
Miguel: "But bring her too." So he would sprinkle little things like that in his music, which I appreciate.
Christina: Well, he also said on this song, "Sometimes I bust a rhyme, but I’m an R&B singer."
Miguel: There you go. I’m not a rapper.
Christina: Yeah. So, I mean, the man said it himself. If you didn’t, couldn’t already figure out.
Miguel: His words.
Christina: So yeah, not one of my favorites, but it was, you know, I liked it but—
Miguel: It was cool.
Christina: I’m not gonna go out of my way to listen to it again though.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: So the second album, More, came out just a year later, and this is where he had songs that I really liked.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: So the first single was "I Like" and this one actually features Slick Rick and not just a sample. And it was also on The Nutty Professor soundtrack. So this one, this is my jam.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: Like, this is one of those songs that makes me want to just start chair dancing and stuff, which I totally did.
Miguel: I can see that.
Christina: So I really like this one. In terms of charts, it did okay as well. Not surprisingly, it did better on the R&B/hip-hop charts. It peaked at number 11 on July 6th and it peaked at number 28 on July 13th on The Hot 100. So continuing that trend of how sort of the quote "general public" took a little, little longer to warm up.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: And didn’t quite get as warm. But I mean, still not bad numbers. And like I said, this was one of my more favorite songs of his. More favorite? Does that make sense?
Miguel: I get where you’re going with it. Something I like about the video is when you sent me the link and it went directly to him dancing.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: Those were some spicy dance moves[4].
Christina: That’s why I sent it to you at that spot.
Miguel: Because-
Christina: The jacket flip?
Miguel: Yeah, the jacket flip and him being really stiff.
Christina: Mmhmm.
Miguel: And I will give him an A for effort, but a D in execution.
Christina: Oh and don’t forget the little like curvy, body, hands thing. I don't know how to describe it.
Miguel: Yeah, he was doing a lot. But I realized that because he’s so damn tall, that’s why it’s probably difficult for him to look good as a dancer because he’s just all arms and legs.
Christina: He’s wearing slacks and a leather jacket.
Miguel: Well, it was 1995-
Christina: I know, I know, it was of the time.
Miguel: So he was looking good for then. Now, not so much. Those fashions did not hold up.
Christina: It didn’t. Well, the girls did though.
Miguel: Yeah, because they were just wearing, like—
Christina: Booty shorts.
Miguel: Shorts and tight pants and bikini tops and sports bras. So that’s timeless.
Christina: Yeah. So how did you feel about the song?
Miguel: It was cool. It’s one of his more memorable songs, at least for me. Because like I said, I really only know like, his singles. I wasn’t delving too deeply into the albums.
Christina: Yeah, same.
Miguel: I just wanted something that sounded good in the car. And this was one of them. Cause it was on The Nutty Professor soundtrack, so this is at a time when all the soundtracks were great. So you would just throw this on and—
Christina: Yeah. I mostly, heard the song because I had The Nutty Professor soundtrack CD. I didn’t have, I didn’t own any of his CDs/albums. But yeah, I really liked this song. And then the next one was "Falling." And of course, you know, I would like the song.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: Because of the sample.
Miguel: Yeah, it samples "Streiht Up Menace" by MC Eiht. But the problem I have with this song is it has the worst member of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony on it.
Christina: Is that a hot take?
Miguel: It is not. It’s not a hot take at all.
Christina: Not according to the YouTube comments.
Miguel: I don’t care what the YouTube comments say. Flesh-n-Bone was the worst member of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. And I’m saying that with my chest. And the rest of them would agree.
Christina: Well, I’m not gonna say he’s the worst, but he’s the only one that I didn’t know the name of. So…
Miguel: Because when they were at their peak, he was in jail. And this is how big and popular Bone Thugs was. Sidebar here. He, they were so popular that he gets out of jail and gets a solo deal on Def Jam.
Christina: Not bad.
Miguel: That’s how popular they were, that his wack ass got a solo deal on Def Jam.
Christina: Rude.
Miguel: And they were placing him on songs like this to try and get him out there.
Christina: Yeah. Well, it’s only in the video and the remix. So there is a version without him if you are not a fan of Flesh-n-Bone. There is a version without him. Would have made more sense to put MC Eiht on it though, no?
Miguel: It would.
Christina: Because he’s also from LA.
Miguel: He is.
Christina: And it's his sample.
Miguel: It's a sample. I’m assuming label issues like, Flesh is already signed to Def Jam.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: Montell’s on Def Jam. No need to get other labels involved.
Christina: I guess, but.
Miguel: It’s enough. We already had to clear the sample. Now we got to clear Eiht being on the record.
Christina: So, you know, I love my like, hip hop infused R&B. So this one was also another one of my favorites. And according to one YouTube comment, it is also the greatest catching feelings anthem ever.
Miguel: Is that right?
Christina: I don't know if I agree with that, but I mean, I guess.
Miguel: You know what? That’s a YouTube comment that I respect and I’m gonna have to go back and listen to it because of it.
Christina: Well, I’m not gonna say "ever" but it’s definitely a catchy song.
Miguel: I don't remember the lyrics at all so, that's why I'm—
Christina: I’m falling for you. I can’t wait to blah-blah-blah. Basically, I’m just, I’m really falling for you.
Miguel: I'm gonna have to go back and listen to it. Cause I didn’t catch any of that when I was listening to it earlier.
Christina: The funny thing that I always remember about this song is at the very end of the song, I don’t know why it sticks out to me so much, but he just ends it, “I’m falling.” And then it just ends. And I know why that always just like, I guess you’re so used to hearing songs, just kind of fade. Not just like, end.
Yeah so, this one did pretty well too. A little bit better than "I Like," but kind of same, same. And, it took a whole month for The Hot 100 folks catch on to this song though.
Miguel: Not surprised.
Christina: Not surprised. And then, we get to "What’s On Tonight," which, I totally forgot about this song.
Miguel: Me too, until I played it earlier.
Christina: Yeah so, it’s familiar, but it’s definitely not something that I really listened to. But fun fact, it was produced and written by one DeVanté Swing.
Miguel: Old Donald out here writing more hits.
Christina: Yes. DeVanté who spawned a generation of DeVanté’s and his real name is Donald.
Miguel: He's not even a DeVanté.
Christina: Donald DeGrate. So there's another fun fact. If you didn’t know that already. Yeah, so I didn’t really like this song that much. The charts say otherwise in terms of the general public and the R&B crowd. It actually did better than, uh, about same, same actually. Wouldn’t say better. About same, same as the other two songs. But this one I completely forgot about.
Miguel: Well, like I’ve been saying, I’ve been into the uptempo stuff, so that’s why I really didn’t get into this one.
Christina: Cause even though "Falling" is a, like, a slow song, the beat has a bit of a uptempo, “uptempo-ness” to it.
[music break]
Christina: So, if he really was a one hit wonder, which he isn't, he wouldn't have made it to a third album.
Miguel: Correct.
Christina: With more hits.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: So the album Let’s Ride and also the name of the first single. So this is actually his second most popular song after you know, the horrid, "This Is How We Do It." I find this funny because I know Silkk the Shocker is your favorite rapper.
Miguel: Yeah...okay.
Christina: So it’s just, I don’t know, ironic? Funny? That his second most popular song is a song featuring Silkk the Shocker, and Master P.
Miguel: I understand it because—
Christina: The beat is good though.
Miguel: I love the song and this is probably my favorite, actually my second favorite Montell Jordan song in spite of Silkk the Shocker being on it.
Christina: It’s definitely a car song.
Miguel: Yeah, and No Limit was really hot at the time.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: So you throw those two onto a Montell Jordan record—
Christina: It makes sense.
Miguel: It’s going to hit the top of the charts.
Christina: Because as much as Montell Jordan is not a rapper, he is rapper adjacent.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: So it kind of makes sense that the song was popular. It almost got all the way up there on The Hot 100. It peaked at number two on April 11th. And then it peaked at number one on the R&B/hip-hop charts, March 28th. So we still get in that same, you know, the R&B crowd is kind of getting this a little bit sooner. Yeah. So not my favorite song. I don’t mind it, but again, I wouldn’t go out of my way to, to listen to it.
Miguel: Yeah, I’d throw it on because like I said, I like how it sounds—
Christina: Right.
Miguel: In spite of Silkk the Shocker being on it.
Christina: But re-listening to it, I was like this beat, this is good. So then, the other single off of this album is "I Can Do That." This is another one that I kind of just forgot about. Re-listening to it I was like, okay, yeah, it sounds familiar. But…
Miguel: Yeah. I didn’t remember it just looking at the tracklisting. But once I watched the video, it was like, oh yeah, I remember this one.
Christina: Uh well, this one was produced by your boys, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. But they couldn’t work their magic for me this time. This sounded like a very typical 1998 R&B song. I figured that you wouldn’t like it because it also kind of reminds me of like Next, like "Wifey," "Butta Love." And I know you hate those songs.
Miguel: I do. But this one's cool. I don’t have any beef with it. If it’s on, I’ll listen to it, but I’m not gonna seek it out.
Christina: Same.
Miguel: But it’s cool song though.
Christina: Again, I could see why other people like it, even if it’s not one of my favorites. So it seems like most of his songs kind of chart pretty much in the same, like, they get close to the top, but don’t quite make it there except for "Let’s Ride" and "This Is How We Do It." The one thing I wanted to point out is there’s always like little phrases that everyone will say in different periods of time.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: And as one YouTube commenter pointed it out, they said, "Oh, you know, artists back then had such creative ways to talk about sex. Not like the disgusting ways they do it now." Blah, blah, blah. But I’m like, you know what? It can be a little gross too because—so there was one phrase that he says that a lot of people were saying at the time was "your honey brown complexion makes my nature rise." I’m like, ew.
Miguel: Yeah, my uncle used to say that.
Christina: I’m like, just cause he didn’t say it, it’s still weird and gross.
Miguel: Yeah, see Montell is a little, a few years older than us. So something like that is a holdover from the previous generation.
Christina: It sounds like something an old man would say.
Miguel: Not necessarily something we would say.
Christina: I don’t know if I’d call that creative. Cause I’m like when I hear it, I’m like, ew. But I know that, uh I think it was a Next song where he talks about his "nature rising" too.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: There’s a couple songs.
Miguel: Again it’s people that are slightly older than us.
Christina: See? I’m grossed out just saying it.
Miguel: So it wasn’t as literal as a—
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: Chris Brown record might be today.
Christina: And then there’s another line where he goes, "I’ll buy you lingerie." And then his ad-lib is "buy you panties, girl."
Miguel: Oh God, I don’t remember that.
Christina: This song is kind of creeping me out.
Miguel: It could have been worse.
Christina: So that was that. And then the last song I wanted to talk about is from his fourth album. Again, if he was a one hit wonder, he wouldn’t have made it to a fourth album, is "Get It On Tonight."
Miguel: And this is probably my favorite Montell Jordan song.
Christina: Well, you and many others, because it was number one on the R&B/hip-hop charts for 38 weeks.
Miguel: With good reason.
Christina: Yeah. So February 11th. Took The Hot 100 folks a lot longer. April 11th and peaked at number four. So.
Miguel: Yeah I’m not surprised that it was—
Christina: We partied to it for a whole two months before everyone else got to it.
Miguel: Yeah I’m not surprised that this one was high on the Billboard charts as well.
Christina: So I guess like, between this one and "Let’s Ride," they kind of like, neck and neck in terms of popularity.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But this was his last like, major hit.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: He’s definitely had more songs and more albums and stuff after this, but this is like his last major hit.
Miguel: Yeah this is by far my favorite Montell Jordan song. And the video, not even close, hands down, my favorite Montell Jordan video. And I’m gonna tell you why.
Christina: Tell me why.
Miguel: So first of all, we were talking about this the other day, he has the Motorola Timeport two-way pager. So he’s actually using the pager in the video and of course, product placement. So they keep shooting, zooming in on his text messages.
Christina: Yes, and it looks so bad watching it in a 2021 lens.
Miguel: Yeah. So for those who haven’t seen the video, here’s the premise. He’s going to a party with his girl. He doesn’t want to go. She’s like, come on. My friends are here, blah, blah, blah. He looks her in the face and is like, "I’m not fucking with them tonight." So she goes into the party by herself. He comes back to the car and starts texting this friend.
Christina: Mmhmm.
Miguel: She says, "Hey, Montell, it's Tiff. Just wanted to say what’s up." He replies "My lady’s stressing me!" Exclamation point. She replies to that, "Too bad. What are you getting into tonight?" So what does this nigga reply with? "You."
Christina: Ugh. At least he didn’t reply with you making my nature rise.
Miguel: I’m getting into you tonight and then he drives to pick her up. And here’s where it gets funny because this is what? '97, '98?
Christina: Um, something like that.
Miguel: Somewhere in there. In theory, you can—
Christina: Oh no, 2000.
Miguel: 2000? Okay. So in theory, you can navigate the streets a little bit better than you can today without like, getting caught with camera phones and like, TMZ and all these other tabloids, because he’s still a celebrity. But your man is six foot eight. Wherever he goes he’s gonna stand out. So she takes him to all these spots where they might not be noticed. So the first place they go to is a rave. She’s dancing her ass off and he’s just standing there all annoyed. Like, I don’t want to be in here. This place is terrible. So then she takes him to a Latin spot. So they do a little salsa dancing. He gets a little rum and Coke in his system. He starting to loosen up a little bit. The third spot they go to is a hip hop club. That’s the last place you wanna be as someone who probably knows the world probably knows that you got a girl and that ain’t her.
Christina: And even if in the video, he’s not "Montell Jordan," this is where his peoples are.
Miguel: Yeah. So you gonna go where people probably know you and again, you can’t blend in cause you’re 6' 8". So why are you doing this? You can’t be incognito anywhere in the world at six foot eight and being Montell Jordan, who has hits on the charts at the time.
Christina: Well, according to him, she’s a chicken. So maybe he’s thinking she’ll be too dumb to notice.
Miguel: And he called his girl a chicken.
Christina: "You are all I want girl."
Miguel: "She’s a chicken."
Christina: "She's a chicken." Wow.
Miguel: That’s harsh.
Christina: Rude.
Miguel: I was watching the video and as I was telling you, the one that I watched doesn’t go all the way to the end because now, first of all, he didn’t even go pick her up, after the party was over. Like she, she comes home and he’s already in the fridge pulling milk out and singing, “My baby’s stressin me.” And she comes in and says something to him but I don’t remember what she said.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: Because the video cut off at that point. But she said something to him and then he repeated something to her and she just kind of stormed off. And then he started singing, “my baby’s stressin' me,” again. So if anybody out there can remember what she said to him[5], let us know on Twitter or Instagram. Because I really want to know. Cause I don’t remember.
Christina: I totally forgot about this until you mentioned it. And then I was like, oh yeah. Cause he was getting snacks.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And he’s just kind of singing the “My baby’s stressin' me.”
Miguel: He didn't even go pick her up after the party. Like, it’s one thing for you to run off and spend the night with another girl. You at least took her home. Go back and pick your girl up at the club.
Christina: And then he told the other girl that she’s a chicken. Just leave her! How about you just break up?
Miguel: Hey, I don’t understand what the relationship was at the time, but yeah.
Christina: There’s a lot of things that someone might call me, but if you call me a chicken, we're gonna have problems.
Miguel: To somebody else too.
Christina: To somebody else. She’s a chicken. Wow.
Miguel: Oh man. Yeah, that was very disrespectful. But at the same time, it’s my favorite Montell Jordan song.
Christina: I do quite enjoy the song even though it’s ridiculous.
Miguel: It is. It’s completely ridiculous.
Christina: It's ridiculous, but it is catchy.
Miguel: But those text messages were cracking me up. And they were real text messages. Unlike Kelly Rowland.
Christina: With her Excel.
Miguel: Using Microsoft Excel on the two way.
Christina: And you got Kelly like, "what’s Excel?" when somebody finally asked her about it. I’m like, girl, I know you lived a great life if you have no idea what Excel is.
Miguel: She has no idea. People had to explain to her what Microsoft Excel was.
[music break]
Christina: Yeah, prior to going through his discography, I would have said that this one was my favorite song. Because I think I just maybe remembered this one the most.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: But after listening to his top tracks, I’m going with, "I Like."
Miguel: Okay. I respect it.
Christina: I was supposed to ask you, which one was your favorite song before I told you mine, but now I’ve told you mine, so.
Miguel: I've already said three times that this one is my favorite, so it doesn’t matter.
Christina: Uh, for me, "Falling" does fall closely behind because I do love the fusion with the MC Eiht beat.
Miguel: Yeah, I figured you would.
Christina: Yep. So you know, I like my hip hop infused R&B. Because I’m a product of my time. Cause everybody was pretty much doing that, you know, between '94 and '98...
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Or so. Everybody was doing it.
Miguel: So to recap, here’s my argument for Montell Jordan not being a one hit wonder. "Somethin' For Da Honeyz," gold. "Falling," gold. "What’s On Tonight," gold. "Let's Ride," platinum. "I Can Do That," gold. "Get it On Tonight," gold. Those are hits ladies and gentlemen.
Christina: That’s a lot of, uh gold.
Miguel: Gold and platnium.
Christina: And one platinum? Or?
Miguel: One platinum outside of "This Is How We Do It."
Christina: Right. Okay. I don’t know if other people have felt this way because "This Is How We Do It" is just so ubiquitous. Ubiquitous. Those are one of those words that I can read but I can’t say.
Miguel: (Gibberish)
Christina: Yabba dabba doo? Uh, it’s all over the place. How about I say that instead? Because I know for me that definitely clouds my judgment.
Miguel: Like I said, I don't have beef with it. I’m not gonna pull it up and listen to it, but...
Christina: I don’t even understand why I hate it so much. I just hate it. I soon as I hear it. It’s like that, what’s that commercial with the cash, the Kars 4 Kids commercial? I hate it so much.
Miguel: Oh man.
Christina: But yeah, I mean, he’s definitely not a one hit wonder and I think you might even call him underrated because just talking about all this gold and platinum, he doesn’t usually come up when you talk about like, oh, your favorite R&B singers and stuff, right?
Miguel: And I think it’s because you and a lot of other people look at "This Is How We Do It" as being corny.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: And just assume that the rest of it is corny too.
Christina: Yeah
Miguel: But hey.
Christina: It’s not.
Miguel: It's not.
Christina: I mean, some like the nature rise. So some of it is corny, but it’s also of the time.
Miguel: It is.
Christina: It’s a different kind of corny.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: It’s just dated. Some of it can be a little bit dated.
Miguel: That’s what it is. It’s dated. Like, listening to It now. Yeah, it sounds funny. But at the time, living through it.
Christina: It was hot.
Miguel: Yeah. It was different.
Christina: Alright, so I think that you and I can agree and a bunch of people on YouTube commenting, he is not a one hit wonder and a little bit underrated.
Miguel: I agree. I’m gonna definitely say that he is not a one hit wonder, and I can see him as being underrated as well, because I hadn’t thought about him in a while.
Christina: Well, I mean, he’s still out here getting checks for that damn song. So I don’t know how he feels about his career, but I think he’s doing alright.
Miguel: He is. And I remember a couple years ago when we were planning a summer party at work and we were like, you know what? Cause it was a themed party. We’re doing like a '90s theme. We were like, let’s look into some celebrities that we could possibly book. And Montell Jordan was on the list. And that man, that man was gonna blow our entire budget. If we got Montell Jordan to come to the party. We really wanted him to, but we couldn’t pay that price. But if you have the budget, Montell will come perform for you. He will come do "This Is How We Do It" and other songs.
Christina: And you will enjoy the other songs.
Miguel: Yeah, for a fee. But it’s not cheap. Let's just say that. And then a couple of weeks later, I saw him performing at halftime at a Raptors game. So he’s definitely getting paid.
Christina: He literally just sang like half the song, too.
Miguel: Yeah, only did half the song and he was out. And if you watch like NBA games on League Pass, you’ll see that he’s still traveling around to NBA arenas, performing "This Is How We Do It." I saw on his Instagram, he was at the Utah Jazz the other night. So.
Christina: You know what, as much as I personally hate the song, good for him. You know what? It doesn’t matter what I think. Good for him.
Miguel: It’s doing well for him. Alright. So you got anything else you want to add?
Christina: I don’t think so. I think I've said more than enough.
Miguel: Alright. So the only thing I’m gonna say is, if you haven’t listened to Montell Jordan, go and listen to some Montell Jordan. Other than "This Is How We Do It." That’s all I got to say.
Alright. So we’re gonna wrap this up now. Thank you again for listening to They Reminisce Over You. We appreciate everybody who listens, and if you’re telling people about this, we appreciate that too. So make sure to continue to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, MySpace, BlackPlanet.
Christina: Why you keep throwing out all these other things that we don’t have?
Miguel: Because eventually somebody is gonna go to these and be surprised when they see a profile page there. That’s why.
Christina: Send them to the website.
Miguel: I was getting to it. Also, you can check out troypodcast.com as well. You can see all of our episodes, transcripts to the episodes, links to things that we’ve spoken about in other podcasts or things that we forgot to mention in episodes. All of that stuff is there.
Christina: Basically think of it as like, transcripts/Wikipedia for each episode.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Although we are filling in some of the older episodes that we haven’t transcribed yet.
Miguel: Right. So if you see a blank page in episode 1, 2, 3, don’t worry, it’ll be filled eventually. But the more recent episodes have transcripts.
Christina: That's right.
Miguel: Also rate and review on your podcast service of choice because the more ratings and reviews more people can find us. And that’s basically what we want is more people to find us.
Christina: Yes, please. Five stars.
Miguel: Yes. Five stars. If you rate us five stars, I will bathe your dog. I think that's a fair trade. I'll come to your house and bathe your dog.
Christina: You will. I ain’t go nowhere.
Miguel: But you have to rate us five stars first, and then we'll talk about me coming to your house and bathing your dog. Other than that, I've got nothing else to add. Christina's got nothing else to add, so we'll be talking to you guys again in two weeks.
Christina: Two weeks.
Miguel: Two weeks. On that note, bye.
Christina: Bye.