Boy (I Need You)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Boy (I Need You)" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by Mariah Carey featuring Cam'ron | ||
| from the album Charmbracelet | ||
| Released | March 24, 2003 (UK) | |
| Format | CD single, 12" single | |
| Genre | Pop/R&B | |
| Length | 5:14 | |
| Label | Island/Def Jam | |
| Writer(s) | Mariah Carey, Just Blaze, Cam'ron, Norman Whitfield | |
| Producer(s) | Mariah Carey, Just Blaze | |
| Chart positions | ||
| Mariah Carey singles chronology | ||
| "MC...Move the Crowd" / "The One" (2002) |
"Boy (I Need You)" (2003) |
"I Know What You Want" (2003) |
| Cam'ron singles chronology | ||
| "My Hood" (2000) |
"Boy (I Need You)" (2003) |
"Hey Ma" (2003) |
"Boy (I Need You)" is a song co-written and co-produced by Mariah Carey and Just Blaze for Carey's twelfth album Charmbracelet (2002). It features a sample of the Rose Royce song "I'm Going Down" that is also used in rapper Cam'ron's "Oh Boy", and Cam'ron himself provides verses for the song. Its protagonist tells a boy how she needs him and is daydreaming about him all day, and it was released as the album's second single in 2003 (see 2003 in music).
[edit] Commercial release
During promotion for "Through the Rain" (the first single from Charmbracelet), a 12" vinyl maxi-single titled "MC... Move the Crowd" was released in the U.S. in November 2002 and featured three tracks from Charmbracelet alongside their instrumental versions: "Boy (I Need You)", the G-funk-inspired jam "Irresistible (Westside Connection)" (featuring Ice Cube, Mack 10 and WC), and "You Got Me" with Jay-Z and Freeway. It was solicited to hip hop/R&B radio to "test" how listeners would respond to the songs and help producers select the album's second single. Few radio stations in the U.S. received the promo, and none of the songs attracted substantial airplay (though "Irresistible (Westside Connection)" peaked at eighty-one on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart). A separate promo released for the song "The One" ultimately received the greatest airplay and was chosen as the album's second single instead. After the failure of "Through the Rain" in the U.S., Carey and her record music label MonarC wanted to steer away from releasing a slow jam, and promotion for "The One" was consequently directed to the uptempo and hip hop-oriented "Boy (I Need You)".
"Boy (I Need You)" was marketed as Carey's comeback single in the U.S. after the intended comeback single "Through the Rain" had failed. "Boy (I Need You)" was even less popular: it failed to chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and became Carey's first single not to appear on Billboard's Hot 100 Bubbling Under Singles chart. It performed marginally better elsewhere, reaching the top twenty in the United Kingdom and the top forty in Canada and Australia, but it failed throughout most of continental Europe.
[edit] Music video and remixes
The single's video, directed by Joseph Kahn, was largely influenced by Japanese culture. It features anime renditions of Carey and Cam'ron, cameos by Godzilla, cyber Japanese space cars, ninjas, Japanese symbols, and crowds of Japanese fans. Bianca, Carey's alter ego who previously appeared in the videos for "Heartbreaker" (1999), tries to run Carey off a Japanese highway, but Carey is able to evade her and she falls off the highway. In Cam'ron's opening dialogue Carey is publicly referred to as "Mimi" for the first time, a nickname that she used for the title of her fourteenth album, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005).
Like "Through the Rain", the main remix for "Boy (I Need You)" was not accompanied by a video. The remix emphasises the sample of "I'm Going Down" and featured raps by Cam'ron, Juelz Santana, Jimmy Jones, and Freeway. The Copenhaniacs, Topnotch, the Punjabi Hit Squad, Duke & MVP from Disco Montego, Agent X / Dutti Boy, and others created remixes of the song.
[edit] Charts
|
|
Studio albums: Mariah Carey · Emotions · Music Box · Merry Christmas · Daydream · Butterfly · Rainbow · Glitter · Charmbracelet · The Emancipation of Mimi
Albums · Singles · Awards · Tours · DVDs and videos
