City High - What Would You Do?

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I was going to offer this in Tom's "activist pop" post, but I'm curious as to what other listies think of this song & the group. At first, I balked, hearing Wyclef's name attached to the project. (Why I balked, I don't know - after all, he was instrumental in getting Destiny's Child off the ground, was he not? And those Fugees cats were pretty OK, too.) I've only heard the song once, but it seems to be a pretty smart story about inner city life. And it's definitely chart-ready. Questions, comments, concerns?

― David Raposa, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I really like this song a lot. The beat is peppy, the chorus will not leave your brain after the first time you've heard it, and the overall sentiment of putting a face and heart to the image of a "woman of questionable virtue" is fantastic. I do think that the song's "solution" is a little too facile, though; I mean, the fact that the guy's mom was able to make ends meet without doing anything questionable doesn't automatically mean that EVERYONE can make ends meet without doing something questionable.

Overall, a great song desrving of any chart success it gets.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Personally, I'd rather hear about some dirty pop any day. If I want to be informed I'll *read a book* about whores...

― Keiko, Wednesday, 20 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The video as well as the narrative Dan - there's something disingenously "cheery" about it to me. Wyclef himself is indefensible. That 911 song made me want to break shit, and not in a good way. He smiles at little Caribbean boys on the beach dressed in sparkling white rags for the benefit of Pepsi's 35mm film crew. SHILL. [u know u ghetto when u know you not Jamaican, you rockin Sean-John, Tommy -- nigga, you fakin. - Kardinal Offishall]

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 20 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

six years pass...

This song isn't as good as I remember it being. :( And I even recalled 90% of the words.

― Tape Store, Sunday, 29 July 2007 23:50 (seventeen years ago)

This is still a great song. Whatever happened to them anyway? I thought Claudette was supposed to put out a solo record... I loved that tune she did with Wyclef ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLkWBOS0Fns )

― The Brainwasher, Sunday, 29 July 2007 23:56 (seventeen years ago)

I still really enjoy the mashup that places the acapella over the Alien Ant Farm remake of "Smooth Criminal".

― Tantrum The Cat, Monday, 30 July 2007 01:58 (seventeen years ago)

four months pass...

This song raises the important of whether or not rape victims are a bit moany.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 13:47 (seventeen years ago)

three months pass...

NIGGA I KNOW ABOUT PAIN CUZ
ME AND MY SISTER RAN AWAY SO OUR DADDY COULDN'T RAPE US
BEFORE I WAS A TEEANGER
I BEEN THROUGH MORE SHIT THAT YOU CAN'T EVEN RELATE TA

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 13 March 2008 21:11 (seventeen years ago)

omgosh i love this song SO MUCH

― Surmounter, Thursday, 13 March 2008 21:11 (seventeen years ago)

Wyclef is awesome again nowadays, Tracer.

― HI DERE, Thursday, 13 March 2008 21:12 (seventeen years ago)

caramel remix is way better

― jhøshea, Thursday, 13 March 2008 21:16 (seventeen years ago)

Just played it again a few weeks ago for the first time in years. I love how by the end the two parties still haven't really heard each other out.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Thursday, 13 March 2008 21:16 (seventeen years ago)

I love how by the end the two parties still haven't really heard each other out.

ILX ANTHEM

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 13 March 2008 21:17 (seventeen years ago)

I think "The Perfect Gentleman" is still the ILX anthem.

― HI DERE, Thursday, 13 March 2008 21:18 (seventeen years ago)

-- The Brainwasher, Sunday, July 29, 2007 11:56 PM (7 months ago

― The Brainwasher, Thursday, 13 March 2008 21:29 (seventeen years ago)

three years pass...

this song is still hot

not as hot as "The Perfect Gentleman" tho

― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Monday, 11 April 2011 16:57 (fourteen years ago)

five months pass...

Still good.

― Jeff, Tuesday, 20 September 2011 22:24 (thirteen years ago)

poll

― kid ᒓᴥᒔ (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 20 September 2011 22:25 (thirteen years ago)

The sad story of City High:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/volume-7-july-2001,41013/

"City High followed a successful template: rapper-singers and high-school pals Ryan Toby and Robbie Pardlo were joined by Claudette Ortiz, a knockout pegged for superstardom following the group’s hit debut album. .. Alas, as Tommy Wiseau is keen to remind us, two is company, but three’s a crowd. Ortiz broke up with Pardlo and hooked up with his friend and bandmate Toby. Put yourself in Pardlo’s place: Seemingly overnight, he lost a friend, a group, and a woman who looks like this. What would you do?

If I were Pardlo, I would have become morbidly depressed and gone on a massive bender. Pardlo did just that, except that his bender lasted a full decade and didn’t stop until he was the subject of a particularly heartbreaking episode of A&E’s Intervention."

― hurricane weather (forapper), Thursday, 22 September 2011 02:23 (thirteen years ago)

this one's like the "curiosity" version of BEP "where is the love" and also 100000x better

is it weird that one of my main comparables for "what would you do" is crash test dummies "mmm mmm mmm mmm"??

anyways weird ass song, bizarro cheery, 10 years later still can't place it, so yeah probably a good song

― fennel cartwright, Thursday, 22 September 2011 17:04 (thirteen years ago)

four months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqy1aMxDf9Y

― Hungry4Ass, Friday, 3 February 2012 20:16 (thirteen years ago)

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