Faith Evans "You Used To Love Me"

Album: Faith (Bad Boy/ Arista; 1995)
Songwriters: Faith Evans
Peak Position: #4

"I remember ttthhheee way/ You used...to love...meeee"

Prior to being crowned as Bad Boy Records' "First Lady", Faith Evans had already made some headway in the industry behind-the-scenes, penning tunes and singing background on albums from Hi-Five, Mary J Blige and Usher. With her established songwriting chops, an enchanting voice that mashed influences from the worlds of gospel, soul and jazz and the Bad Boy hit-making team behind her, it came as no surprise that her self-titled '95 album would land as a key debut in '90's R&B, offering a more sophisticated polish to the heralded hip hop-soul female sound Blige had mastered so well on her first two releases.

The album's lead-off joint was the mesmerizing "You Used To Love Me", a somber ode to a faded romance built atop a rubbery midtempo bounce and lingering guitar flourishes. "You don't appreciate the time I put into this love affair," she calmly fumes, sounding disappointed in herself for sticking around so long in a relationship that had grown increasingly one-sided ("You didn't hear me callin' out/ And that's not what love's about"). Avoiding venturing down an angry route, her jazzy inflections instead echo the painful throbbing of a deflated heart, the constant memories of their much happier beginnings only strengthening the ache.

R&B fans quickly embraced her seducing sound, leading to "You Used To Love Me" becoming the first of three Top 20 singles to emerge from her eventually Platinum-certified debut. But sadly the promising waves of her early solo success would soon be overshadowed in the media by her marriage to Notorious BIG and the much-talked about role she played in his feud with 2Pac.

Best Moment: Chucky Thompson's bouncy groove.



DL: "You Used To Love Me" (YFH)

(Peep remixes from Ummah and Puffy)