Album: Harlem World (Bad Boy/ Arista; 1997)
Songwriters: Ronald Bell, G. Brown, Lawrence Dermer, Joe Galdo, Robert "Spike" Mickens, C. Smith, D. Thomas, Rafael Vigil and Richard Westfield
R&B Peak Position: #5
"Bad bad bad bad boy, you make me feel so gooooooood..."
While Harlem World was Mase's official debut solo project, he was already a well-established hip-pop superstar by it's release, thanks to cameo gigs on a slew of hit singles from the Bad Boy camp ("Mo Money, Mo Problems", "Only You", "Been Around The World"). Not wanting to muck up his successful chart ride, for Harlem's first single "Feels So Good", the artist formerly known as 'Murda Mase' stuck close to the Puffy crossover formula that had made him such a popular musical figure in less than a year's time; that essentially meant the track was another huge jiggy anthem, helped out by familiar hooks and beats stolen from cherished pop smashes of decades prior (in this case, a looped sample of the brassy funk extravaganza of Kool & The Gang's "Hollywood Swingin'" and the chorus from Miami Sound Machine's hokey favorite, "Bad Boy").
Weighted heavy in materialistic braggadoccio (Puffy & Co.'s sole M.O. at the time), "Feels So Good" offered a slick serving platter of lavish life excess, celebrating a VIP world of supermodel chicks, bottles of Cris, celeb-filled soirées and the most expensive threads known to man. Mase's mush-mouthed mumblings grasp onto a nice flow as he happily boasts of his newfound fortune and elevated ladies' man status ("Now I be the cat that be hard to meet/ Gettin' head from girls that used to hardly speak"), while mocking the envy of baller wannabes ("Niggas talkin' shit/ They oughta quit/ Unfortunate, they don't see a fourth what I get").
Is it all depth-less flash? Well, there's some awed reflection of his rags-to-riches journey and he does rally for an end to the East Coast/ West Coast rap feud fueling so many media stories at the time, but these moments are very brief as Mase and Puff would rather spend bars advertising high-priced wardrobes and big toys than strive for any stab at substance.
"Feels So Good" did little to soothe the anger of hip hop purists sick of hearing about how big ballers rolled against re-heated disco grooves; unfortunately for them, the majority couldn't get enough of that glittery Bad Boy sound (or those god-awful shiny suits), as the single quickly became another Platinum-certified notch on the team's belt.
DL: "Feels So Good" (YFH)
1 comments:
i never like mase
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