What's Luv?: The Best (Worst?) of Thug/Love Duets

So, springtime and summertime approach, and I've been having a hankering for the horribly corny/wonderful R&B/hip-hop duets that peaked in the early 00s. j0rdan and I started listing them over on Facebook, but clearly this is an effort that requires all of ILM. We've covered a lot of the stuff worth covering hopefully, but we hopefully have missed surprisingly awesome stuff, so...add away. There seemed to be a golden age of this stuff and then a huge drop off...perhaps because so much of rap and R&B have merged into the same Eurohouse Autotune zone, but there's something genuine and guileless and happy about a lot of this stuff that lends itself v. well to nostalgia.

1. Fat Joe - What's Luv? (feat. Ashanti & Ja Rule)
2. Jennifer Lopez - I'm Real (Murder Remix) (feat. Ja Rule)
3. Fabolous - So Into You (feat. Tamia)
4. Ja Rule - Put It On Me (feat. Lil Mo & Vita)
5. Estelle - American Boy (feat. Kanye West)
6. Mariah Carey - Fantasy (Bad Boy Remix) (feat. Ol' Dirty Bastard)
7. Mariah Carey - Heartbreaker (feat. Jay-Z)
8. Mariah Carey - We Belong Together (Desert Storm Remix) (feat. Jadakiss & Styles P)
9. Sean Paul - I'm Still in Love With You (feat. Sasha)
10. Nelly - Dilemma (feat. Kelly Rowland)
11. Fantasia - When I See U (Zone 4 Remix) (feat. Polow da Don & Young Jeezy)
12. Mýa - The Best of Me (Holla Remix) (feat. Jay-Z)
13. Alicia Keys - Fallin' (feat. Busta Rhymes & Rampage)
14. The Notorious B.I.G. - One More Chance/Stay With Me (Remix) (feat. Faith Evans)
15. Method Man - I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need To Get By (Puff Daddy Mix) (feat. Mary J. Blige)
16. Mystikal - Danger (feat. Nivea)
17. Ciara - Can't Leave 'Em Alone (feat. 50 Cent)
18. Brandy - Talk About Our Love (feat. Kanye West)
19. Common - The Light (Remix) (feat. Erykah Badu)
20. Kelis - Popular Thug (feat. Pusha T)
21. Bow Wow - Like You (feat. Ciara)
22. JoJo - Baby It's You (feat. Bow Wow)
23. Cassie - Sometimes (feat. Ryan Leslie)
24. Lil Flip - Sunshine (feat. Lea)
25. Timbaland - The Way I Are (feat. Keri Hilson & Really D.O.E.)
26. Talib Kweli - Hot Thing (Remix) (feat. Jean Grae & Ne-Yo)
27. Angie Martinez - If I Could Go (feat. Lil Mo & Sacario)
28. Lumidee - Never Leave You (Uh Ooh, Uh Ooh) (Remix) (feat. Busta Rhymes & Fabolous)
29. Truth Hurts - Addictive (feat. Rakim)
30. Cherish - Killa (feat. Yung Joc)
31. DMX - Back in One Piece (feat. Aaliyah)
32. NaS - You Won't See Me Tonight (feat. Aaliyah) (maybe not?)
33. Vistoso Bosses - Delirious (feat. Soulja Boy)
34. Tatyana Ali - Daydreamin' (feat. Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz)
35. O.D.B. - Got Your Money (feat. Kelis) (again, a bit of a stretch)
36. Thalia - I Want You (feat. Fat Joe)
37. Diddy - Last Night (feat. Keyshia Cole)
38. Jennifer Lopez - Ain't It Funny (Murder Remix) (feat. Ja Rule & Caddillac Tah)
39. Nelly Furtado - Promiscuous (feat. Timbaland)
40. Jay-Z - '03 Bonnie & Clyde (feat. Beyonce)

attn tim f & lex obv

i guess one distinction we tried to make when throwing out songs was between songs about love & songs about lust (i.e. "goodies" or "soldier")

ghostface ft jackie o - tooken back

The four songs here that I had totally forgotten about are Lil Flip, Angie Martinez, Thalia, and Tatyana Ali, all of which number among the strongest.

Strangely enough, back when 'If I Could Go!' got regular radio play, and the handful of times I've heard it since, I was convinced that the guest rapper was Jay-Z, instead of Sacario. Still sounds uncanny at times.

ja rule ft. ashanti - always on time

Lil Kim ft. Twista -- Thug Luv

probably on the 'worst' end of things

clipse ft faith evans - ma, i don't love her

Plus, that's about their gun, no?

is it?

[Chorus:]
[Pusha T + Malice with Faith Evans (Faith)]
Look
Ma, I don't love her
Don't listen to her words
She tryin' to split us as lovebirds
But that's not it
Now you see me buyin' her whips and shit (No)
You see me sendin' her on trips and shit (No)
If the answers no don't forget (How's she know you then)
I don't know

Sayin that I cheat
Right, maybe with my heat
Got a pearl handled chrome thing that I call Sweets
I greet wit her, creep wit her, even eat wit her
Late nights under my sheets, yeah I sleep with her
But thats it

Oh, fair. The next few verses are just general creeping.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRMiIYPy1WI&feature=fvst

If I can go, contigo, I'll pack my things, soon as you say
Baby vamos, we'll fly away, like there is no, no tomorrow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBjDu21c0cA

So, ma, get it together, or forget it forever
When I go at you hard I can get it through leather
You act like Jigga can't get at whoever
Talking you got a man,
Okay ma, and?
That's high school, making me chase you around for months
Have an affair; act like an adult for once

i think i might've said this in the other thread but that jay verse is like the height of his ability to perfectly mix vulgarity & charm

What other thread? And yeah. The vulgarity/charm mix is at its height in Best of Me and the height of his ability to be totally callous while remaining charming is the remix of Missy's One Minute Man:

Fifty grand I get this on one take...
Look, I'm not tryin to give you love and affection (uh-huh)
I'm tryin to give you sixty seconds of perfection (uh-huh)
I'm tryin to give you cabfare and directions
Get your Independent ass out of here - QUESTION?
...
The dick too chubby, too much'll make you love me
Now be a nice wifey and run home to your hubby
Cause we, both knowin what we doin is wrong
Don't forget to put your ring back on
/detour

Back on topic....

How did we forget

Busta Rhymes - I Know What You Want (feat. Mariah Carey)
Field Mob - So What (feat. Ciara)

Busta Rhymes - I Know What You Want (feat. Mariah Carey)

oh god this is like top 10% percentile of this shit

the other bread being my poll of ship's top 50 rap/r&b songs

lol -- thread

Poor searching skills at 3 a.m. on my part, sigh.

i actually think this one is kinda dope

jay-z ft mariah carey - things that u do (seems important to include seeing as how often both are showing up here)

how much crossover is there b/w this thread & this forgotten thread low key singing/crooning on rap songs or r&b songs by rappers that would've been autotuned if the song was released after 2008

Jay's verses on Things That U Do seems really disconnected from Mariah's chorus, though. Like...it doesn't feel like a Thug Love song in the way that Best of Me or '03 Bonnie & Clyde are.

tbh i never listened to the verses that closely

this one is kinda minor but

alicia keys ft ludacris - like you'll never see me again (remix)

Some minor classics:

Mya ft. Sean Paul - Things Come & Go
Christina Milian ft Joe Budden - Whatever You Want
Field Mob ft. whoever - Sick Of Being Lonely

oh god, sick of being lonely, yes

here's the other thread btw: al ship's top 50 rap/r&b crossover singles of the 00s -- which is your favorite?

think you guys are really reaching with some of these songs ("Danger," "Last Night") and should maybe rethink playing up the word "thug" if there's gonna be so much Kanye, Kweli, Common etc.

Yeah, about 6 or 8 of these are a result of casting our net too broadly. Ditch the Common/Ye/Talib and the not-strictly-love songs and it's still a pretty decent list. You're right, though.

how is there no cool j on this thread?

these songs are all amazing and you seem to have pretty much finished the list w/o me :(

I love every last corny track in this list. I still listen to Dilemma, Mezmerize (LOL zpelling), What's Luv, Down 4 U, I'm Real and a ton more of those.

if you reverse the traditional male rapper/female singer dynamic at all it should be for Remy Ma f/ Ne-Yo "Feels So Good"

hate "What's Luv", like "I'm Real" (and "Always on Time")

imo "Put It On Me" and the "Ain't It Funny" remix are the 2 Murder Inc classics and almost everything else can fuck off

oh i just saw yr request on fbook for british shiz, alex - a few ny tracks come to mind, in particular this <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yegafoLZH6Y

beenie man ft. mya - girls dem sugar
drake ft. nicki minaj - best i ever had (remix)
lloyd ft. yung joc & nina sky - get it shawty (remix)

these songs are all amazing and you seem to have pretty much finished the list w/o me :(

― lex pretend, Sunday, March 20, 2011 1:42 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

This makes me feel strangely proud of myself? And yet still disappointed.

haha you did start off with FORTY. i'm not doing thinking today though, hangover.

Mmm. I can't think of any Janet ones and I'm SURE they must exist. Happy hangover recovery.

I suspect the ones we are missing aren't the big obvious ones that I would know but more in the vein of Tatyana Ali, Angie Martinez, Mya Remix, etc. Either obscure R&B chicks/groups who hooked up with fairly prominent rappers or radio remixes of solo hits. Either way, things beyond my ken.