It’s been almost a full week since Queen Michelle Williams reigned supreme at the Super Bowl halftime show (despite whatever Keyshia Cole had to say on Twitter), but I’m still stuck on the Destiny’s Child legend’s back catalog.
And by that, I mean her one non-Gospel album in 2008, Unexpected.
But, wait. Hold on. I’m going to need her present if I’m going to go any further. MICHELLE, WHERE YOU AT?
Okay, yup. There we go.
All week long, I’ve been jamming to Miss Tenitra’s super slept on Unexpected track “Sick Of It.” And by “slept on,” I mean “impossible to find”: It was a FYE-exclusive bonus track, which means that roughly 7 people in the entire world have actually heard the song.
In fact, the song’s so damn obscure that only one shoddy YouTube video actually exists on the Internet, with annoying DJ call-out hooks, in low quality. You can’t buy it anywhere. And despite my attempt to put a better version on SoundCloud, Columbia Records shut that shit down faster than Rita Ora trying to get an autograph from Beyonce.
Poor Michelle, indeed.
The song was crafted by Soulshock & Karlin, the renowned Danish R&B-production duo responsible for everything from JoJo‘s “Leave (Get Out)” to Jamelia‘s “Something About You” to Whitney Houston‘s “Heartbreak Hotel” with Faith Evans and Kelly Price.
The clunky R&B beat is tight (if not slightly dated)–it’s got knock, as Keri Hilson would probably say, and that sorrowful chorus is one hell of an earworm (“Sick of it, I know that you been lying to me…”) It sounds like a Danity Kane midtempo cut, along with a bit of The-Dream‘s production sprinkled on top.
The song sees our songstress getting pushed to the limit by her shady man and demanding answers: “Where the hell you been? You about 3 hours off, and you should have been here by now.” It’s like the unheard sequel to “Say My Name.”
Exactly a year later after Unexpected debuted at #42 (which, in the spectrum of chart-middling R&B chanteuse records, is not a Basic Instinct, not yet a Ms. Kelly), the track re-emerged with a new remix by Chris Dave (because if anything was missing from the Michelle Williams experience, it was live drums and guitars.) It sucks mostly, so don’t bother.
“Sick Of It” isn’t a revelation by any means (it’s no “Till The End Of The World”), but it’s a pretty decent track, and it probably ought to be heard by more people than Mathew and just Tina Knowles.
Below is the track: Ignore the awful 10-second DJ intro…and the Beyonce photo. THE ENDLESS SHADE OF IT ALL.
And this is what I’m doing with my life on a Friday night.
Unexpected was released in 2008. (iTunes)
