Produced by Dame Grease with untypical restraint, "If You Think I'm Jiggy" is one of the most uneventful club tracks of the Bad Boy era, the spacious instrumentation suggesting luxury but creating an air of of emptiness. Apparently Bad Boy was able to afford such preemptive 'sample' clearance. Those wondering if the title referenced Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" learned from the credits that the composition indeed embodied portions thereof, even if the only traces of it could be found in the half-sung hook. The first single, "If You Think I'm Jiggy" failed at both. The question was not only which direction the rap department of Bad Boy would take, but also if The LOX, similar to The Notorious BIG, could combine commercial and artistic ambitions. As Mase and Puff himself covered Bad Boy's pop rap leanings, The LOX, while visually fresh-faced and vocally exuding a touch of innocence, were seen as the label's future lyrical strike force.
Blige, to shortening the somewhat nerdy name The Warlocks to The LOX (which came to stand for Living Off Xperience), to providing the label's production expertise. Combs was instrumental in that success, from considering the endorsement by fellow Yonkers artist Mary J. The LOX entered their mainstream career well prepared, garnering a gold album and a gold single within months (the album went platinum in '99). His posthumous album " Life After Death" was quickly followed by Puff Daddy & The Family's " No Way Out," Mase's " Harlem World," and then in early '98 by "Money, Power & Respect." By the time of their full-length debut, The LOX were already a household name in hip-hop, having appeared on the previously mentioned albums (most notably in Big's "Last Days" and Puff's "It's All About the Benjamins"), as well as providing the mandatory rap edge to R&B songs by Mona Lisa, Mariah Carey, LSG, Zhané, and Mary J. To be precise, there weren't that many Bad Boys around back then (even if you count Martin Lawrence and Will Smith tag-teaming in 'Bad Boys'), but Bad Boy Entertainment had certainly become an ubiquitous player in the recording industry, and with The LOX, Sean 'Puffy' Combs was able to present three more Bad Boys in one fell swoop.Ĭhristopher Wallace died in March 1997. It felt like there was a Bad Boy on every corner back then." Nostalgia comes included with "Money, Power & Respect," whose intro "Yonkers Tale" (mimicking the opening sequence of 'A Bronx Tale') already sets a historic stage for a rap album that was then brand new. "It was around 1997, The LOX was the sound of the streets.
THE LOX MONEY POWER RESPECT ALBUM SERIES
** RapReviews "Back to the Lab" series ** The LOX :: Money, Power & Respect :: Bad Boy Entertainment
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