Let Me Blow Ya Mind vs What Would You Do? vs Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops)

I don't really like any of these songs that much, way better jams from that time

man these all used to be played in the gym while i was taking weightlifting in college

Hit Em Up Style is quite good.

don't actually like the boringly preachy City High much at all so between Eve and Blu - Blu's performance probably more entertaining but carefree feelgood approach of Eve n' Gwen appeals slightly more

awsome poll

tough. definitely between the 1st two

Never heard City High but love the other two. Blow Ya Mind has probably retained its slink better over the years though, last time I heard Oops it was disappointingly tinny (but may have been shit radio reception)

blow ya mind def - all three are classix though

The radio edit of Blow Ya Mind puzzled me to no end. Huh, "don't fight that gook goop goodt in ya ear" -- was this a new slang for (aural) sex? It sounded extremely dirty and mysterious, and by the time I learned that it went "don't fight that good shit," the mystique had worn off.

My real vote goes to that "5'5" with brown eyes" song by City High, which neatly encapsulates everything I would like about Ashanti, if I actually liked Ashanti.

girl, you ain't the only one with a baby
that's no excuse to be livin' all crazy
then she looked me right square in the eye, and said
"every day I wake up hopin' to die"

hit em up style has the best beat

cant stand that city high song -- its unbearable

i think i like hit em up style more than let me blow ya mind cuz its such a generic pop star joint

i remember hearing coldcut or some other ninja tune dudes play 'hit em up style' on radio 1 in the middle of the night back when it came out, mixed with some other more typically ninja tuney stuff (they played the 'get yr freak on' vocal over boards of canada in the same show i remember, lol), and it just reinforced how it felt like pretty much everyone in the world agreed that chart r'n'b was the most exciting thing going on. so you'd hear something like 'hit em up style' from coldcut and then you'd hear it on the breakfast show and then you'd hear it on trevor nelson in the afternoon and then again when you went out...and whatever this is a corny memory but i loved that whole time and hearing blu cantrell on this downbeat stoner radio show was exciting in a small way. so i'll probably vote for that, even though i've listened to 'let me blow ya mind' way way more times, but eve will win so she doesn't need my vote here.

Poor Blu Cantrell. Everyone should check "Swinging" and "Waste My Time" from her first album.

I don't hate "What Would You Do" but it's very wholemeal.

'what would you do?' is such a curious choice for this poll! i had forgotten all about it. it seemed oddly dated even then. there are loads of better tracks from the time...

mad luv for the other two OBV, but it's cantrell in a canter for me. "so i went - to neiman marcus on a shopping spree-ah / and on the way i grabbed sole and mia" always makes me laugh. it really is one of the best songs about revenge ever. i remember i was briefly annoyed at her for nicking lina's r&b/20s jazz schtick but it didn't last. actually 'playa no mo' would've been a much better third choice in this poll.

ashanti had a really good single this year...

oops is a great song. there's no guilt attached to that pleasure.

"Oops (Oh My)" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>these songs

hit em up style was such an awesome song to have come on the radio while I was driving all the behavioral-classroom kids I worked with to school back then. we would bop around to that. I like eve too but hit em up style is endorsed by the kids who break shit in the classroom and my heart is always gonna be with them so vote blu cantrell 2008, plus the song is awesome, ok thanks.

Blow Ya Mind doesn't sound dated in the least.

It sounds like a Dre beat from 2001, i.e. yes it does.

'what would you do?' is such a curious choice for this poll!

the point of the poll was not to find three of the best tracks like this from the time (obv there was better stuff) but to find equivalents for the strokes/hives/stripes hits - so new artists only (so no 'family affair' or 'bootylicious') and similarly strong UK sales were the real criteria and City High checks out in both those cases. plus it was a bigger hit in the US than the other two according to the Billboard 100 for that year so should be more memorable really.

Eve had already had several hits (at least in the US) at that point. She wasn't any less "new" than Destiny's Child.

new to the UK charts then

Reverend OTM.

too many bloody grunge polls knockin' this down

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

need more Oops songs...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i want to know who voted city high

I remember summer 2001 I lived with a friend for a few months and had no TV or radio or car, and was in a relative pop culture blackout for pretty much the only extended period of my adult life, to the point that I'd hear about big songs like, say, "Izzo," but actually heard them way after everyone else. And now and then I hear people talk about some song like "Hit Em Up Style" like it was huge and I barely remember it, and then I'm like oh yeah, it came out in summer '01.

this is still Hit Em Up Style by a country mile.

I only recently learned (from Questlove's podcsat) that Dallas Austin produced it, and 'Creep', and the first Boyz II Men album, and 'They Don't Really Care About Us', and a million other things.

DARP!

"Hit 'Em Up Style (Granny Dainger)"

live version from 2016!

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

Might not be to everyone's taste, but Rhiannon Giddens did a cool cover of Hit Em Up Style with her band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rn7YZWtZEo

there's a Dre connection in all these yeah?

anyway Let Me Blow Ya Mind rules!