ZingSync

My mother used to play this awful song all the time. I never liked it but it does bring me back to a specific time when I hear it.

It was a massive hit and she was sort of around for a moment and then never saw her again.

She was pretty too!

LOL I was a freshman in high school when this song came out and I loved it. It was when MTV still played music videos.

Thy year of bad fake hair

Jay-Z was obsessed with Blu before settling on Beyonce. He was into exotic half black women with light skin. Blu got with some basketball star but some weird shit went on and he dropped her. Recently she was hospitalized in a psych ward in LA I think. I feel bad for her because she did have talent as a singer and had a great look.

I heard she had a bad drug habit and is not mentally fucked up

MTV still played videos in 2001? It seems like I’ve been saying that same thing since way longer than that.

She went bonkers.

"At 2 a.m. that morning, Cantrell, who is best known for her 2001 single “Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!),” started ranting about someone trying to give her “poisonous gas.” Witnesses say the erratic behavior lasted for so long that police were called.

Cantrell reportedly referred to herself as a “one-hit wonder,” after questioning if authorities recognized her."

It was used in RuPauls Drag Race last season. I think Kandy had to lip synch to it so its very triggering for me. Hate it now.

She went to the nut house in 2014.

Every time I think of her I think of this weird but interesting dress she wore, that suited her. She looked pretty

Compared to most songs released around the same time, it's a stone cold masterpiece

This is her a few years ago. Super skinny now.

Heard shes a junkie

Jay-Z named his daughter Blue and some people thought he wasn’t over his Blu obsession. Blu in 2001 definitely was prettier than Beyonce.

I’m more interested in what happened to her shopping pals, Soleil and Mia.

I remember when Matt Dallas claimed to have dated her. I think it was when he was interviewed by Howard Stern.

She had that song with Sean Paul that was supposed to be another hit for her but it flopped

I prefer her musician brother, Jerry Cantrell.

[quote] It was a massive hit and she was sort of around for a moment and then never saw her again.

Things got bluer that September.

I don't know if this is true but there was a rumor alleging that Beyonce was jealous and got Blu blacklisted from the music industry and that was a contributing factor into why Blu's career didn't take off.

Didn't she come out as bi or gay?

R24 that was never a Rumor

[quote]My mother used to play this awful song all the time.

Clearly your mother didn't give you any taste!

OP types like he came here from Lipstick Alley.

Loved this song.

2001? I was in high school - 20 years? Ugh…

Is she related to Lana Cantrell?

I miss this era. I was in middle school. Thanks for posting, OP. I had totally forgotten this song but it’s gonna be stuck in my head for weeks now.

I heard it was drugs and bey getting her blacklisted

R27 to be fair I like it now. But I found it annoying then for some reason.

Bey has nothing to do with her. Jesus. Leave her alone.

I went to Neiman Marcus on a shopping spree… 💳

Lana Cantrell was really mean to a friend of mine as a child.

It was very catchy and she was very pretty back then, it’s to bad she has a drug problem.

Loved her. Always wondered what happened to her.

I love "Sleep in the Middle" from her 2003 album, I still listen to it until today. Her voice was incredible.

I really think Jay Z had her cancelled. Beyonce debuted as solo artist in 2003, and Blu was never heard from again after that.

Omg no one had her canceled. Everything she released after this song flopped. Only one other song charted, at #90! No other song even cracked Top 100.

That’s why she was “canceled”. It’s Hollywood. It’s about money.

Sorry, Breathe peaked at 70. The other 3 singles didn’t chart.

Her sophomore album in 2003 peaked at 37 and rapidly fell off the Billboard 200. Massive flop.

Her failure had nothing to do with fucking Jay Z. She wasn’t even signed to his record label and this was 2001-2003. Jay and Bey weren’t the powerhouses they are now.

[quote]Omg no one had her canceled.

Gurl please. She was light skinned in the early 2000s, and could actually sing better than 97% of the artists out in 2001-2003. All the makings of a megastar. She herself that the labels fought each other to sign her. You dont go from that to having an album with almost zero promo overnight. Someone in a high place had it out for her and they made sure her career lost all momentum.

R42 no one cares that she was “light skinned” in the early 00s. Many artists, of all colors, we’re able to produce many hits and stay around for a while at least. She couldn’t. Despite being “light skin”, which seems to mean something

I really hated this time period and I was 14 at the time. Baby One More Time ruined pop music!

She could do quite well with Jazz. Her one hit is basically a Jazz vocal because the swing is the thing with it.

In the 1990's she posed in Black Tail magazine. They're gynecological in scope and really raw (I'm an actual Lesbian btw and I even think the pics are rather rough hune) but she looks gorgeous in them. Early in her one hit career her pics leaked. Who leaked them? I'd safely assume her competition.

I remember the whole Cd being good

[quote][R42] no one cares that she was “light skinned” in the early 00s

r43, YOU might not care in 2021 that she was light skinned. Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Ashanti, none of those girls who were popping off in 2001 were dark skinned honey. Id be rich if I had a dollar for every time someone here comments on Beyonce's light skin being the reason her solo career took off. Now you are going to come here and say Blu Cantrell being light skinned didn't matter? You can't have it both ways bitches. Blu Cantrell had the look that the labels were going for at that time, no debate. That's like saying big fake booty is not trendy among female rappers today. Right, that would be incorrect.

R47 no darker skinned women were having success in music?

Beyonce did not look fair-skinned on the cover for "Writing on the Wall". Wonder when she started bleaching her skin.

She never bleached her skin. Black people get darker too. They can tan too. She is fair skinned like her mother.

It didn't help her either that nude pics she posed for years earlier surfaced. They were pretty explicit too. Spread legged and spread vag. Today it wouldn't be that big a deal.

Blu is like one of many talented singers who got chewed up and out by the music industry.

Yeah R51 Kim K and Paris Hilton paved the way for that.

Most pop stars have a 3 year shelf life. 5 is a good run. 10 is very hard, and 20 is extraordinary.

Oh god. This song was everywhere when I was in college. Hated it then. Hate it now.

Faith Evans had an album out in 2001 as well and I remember it was hard to tell them apart. Not only did they look alike they also had similar singing styles

Good lord OP, you brought it all the way back. I haven't heard or thought about this woman in 20 years.

She used to remind me of Charli Baltimore and Faith Evans 'cause of the light-skinned, R&B/Hip Hop thing. And was Blue Cantrell ever involved with Biggie at some point?

[quote] Faith Evans had an album out in 2001 as well and I remember it was hard to tell them apart.

Racist!

I hated that fucking song. I will always hate it.

I can't believe I'm the first to mention the bearding arrangement.

Love her jazzy voice.

Here's another hit "Breathe"

Love her whole album!

R64 as mentioned upthread, it peaked at 70. It wasn’t a hit. They thought it would be.

Matt Dallas is married to a man named Blue Hamilton after allegedly dating Blu Cantrell. Maybe he has a thing for that name.

Why would Howard Stern interview Matt Dallas? He doesn't seem that interesting.

r58 they DID actually look alike and they both are excellent singers with jazzy styles

Breathe was huge all over Europe around 2003. I was living in London and you couldn’t get away from it, really. But I liked it anyway.

R69 yes. It did well in Europe. It flopped in the states.

Blu is an amazing singer. She could make a living off of Breathe and Hit Em Up Style but I guess she’s still struggling with mental issues. Sad.

I remember her old pictures from black tail magazine came out after she had her hit single.

[quote]I’m more interested in what happened to her shopping pals, Soleil and Mia.

Moon Frye and Farrow?

[quote]I don't know if this is true but there was a rumor alleging that Beyonce was jealous and got Blu blacklisted from the music industry and that was a contributing factor into why Blu's career didn't take off.

Beyoncé did the same thing to Keri Hilson.

[quote]And her 1967 "speak to the manager" hairdo

Amazing that singer Lana Cantrell had that weird asymmetrical hairstyle so many years ago. Guess some hairstylist came upon photos of that odd style, then tried that cut on some suburban housewives. It became so ubiquitous. Unless the woman is a great beauty, that cut isn't flattering at all.

I suppose everything old eventually becomes new again? Or was new again, that is. I don't see many women with that hairdo, well, not where I live.

I believe the Beyonce rumors. she brags about "I might just get your song on the radio stations." I guess she's capable of the reverse as well. It's easy enough to do. Beyonce was so huge with her debut single. It's easy enough to say, if you want me, can her - or at least have your people do it.

Man, do I hate Beyoncé. What a cunt.

Interesting Article from Blu Cantrell about Beyonce...

This is Blu Cantrell's Breathe where you can see the definite similarities between the artists, including the fan blown locks.

Beyonce's Baby Boy video.

Another casualty of Beyoncé. Along with Keri Hilson, Amerie and Teaerra Marí. At least Rihanna persevered.

What happened to the music industry that made it so colorist? Female soul, jazz, R&B singers and rappers were usually diverse in skin tone. But by the early 2000s, they became more and more light-skinned. By the end of the 2000s, being a dark-skinned R&B singer or female rapper was rare. How did it go from Nina Simone, Diana Ross and Whitney Houston to Nicki, Rihanna and Beyoncé?

Faith Evans is a way better singer than Beyoncé could ever dream.

R21 That song was huge on MTV. It didn't flop

R83 Whtiney and Diana Ross are light skin. You'd be hard pressed to find an R&B, Pop Black female artist who is dark skin before now.

Whitney and Diana are not light-skinned. Whitney is brown skinned and Diana was dark skinned before her "makeover." Whitney is darker than Janet and around the complexion of Nia Long. She's not dark but she's not light either.

If you want to work me up into a rabid lather play one of those television commercials where black children won’t eat their vegetables until the vegetables are smothered in cheese and the mother puts light skinned artist Enya on the stereo. The light skinned Mom has relaxed hair and the darker kids hair is natural. The message of the ad is clearly that Kraft will civilize the savage into MOR, high tone respectability.

[quote]Whitney is darker than Janet

Janet bleaches herself.

Light skin = Beyonce, Vanessa Williams, Rihanna, Toni Braxton, Nick Minaj, Aaliyah

Brown skin = Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Ashanti, Anita Baker,

Dark skin = Kelly Rowland, Brandy, Ari Lennox, Janelle Monae, Jazmine Sullivan, Fantasia

Mixed = Blu Cantrell, Mariah Carey, Faith Evans, Alicia Keys

So most of the popular contemporary R&B singers were either light-skinned or mixed. Brown at the most. The 50s, 60s and 70s had far more dark-skinned female singers due to lack of music video prominence.

r83 that was point I was making earlier in this thread. The light-skinned thing was a TREND in the early 2000's. I believe this was due to R&B crossing over in a big way at that time, and R&B girls were competing with pop girls like Britney and Christina. Flat foot singers like Mariah and Whitney were being phased out; labels wanted to easily sell sex appeal to mass audiences like it was pop. As soon as R&B fell out of favor by the 2010s, darker skinned R&B singers had a resurgence like Jazmine Sullivan, HER, etc.

I love Blu Cantrell, but the only reason "Breathe" and "Baby Boy" sounded alike was because Sean Paul was on both songs and he is a talented rapper. "Breathe" sampled a Dr. Dre song, the beat wasn't rooted in dancehall.

I hope that Beonstage is over and done.

Pop princesses were definitely part of the decline. Record labels actually used Britney, Christina, Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore along with boy bands like NSYNC and Backstreet Boys to sell a very watered-down poppy version of R&B to suburbia. Don't believe me? A lot of Britney's early demos were R&B songs and originally Baby....One More Time was written for TLC. A lot of Backstreet Boys and NYSNC early songs sounded like Boyz II Men, Jodeci and Immature reject songs. Christina and Jessica were clearly meant to be a white Mariah clones. Svengali Max Martin basically took formulas from R&B and combined it with heavy metal and Eurodance to create his signature sound. J. Lo was also heavily promoted to push an R&B and hip-hop sound to Latino Americans.

I give Beyonce some credit. She did at least stick to an R&B sound. She eventually tried going more pop with I Am... Sasha Fierce which was very commercially successful

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3TmqOorZ6csm%2BvzqZmraCimq6le5FyaG5uaGuEbsPHnqtmmpyqeqStza2pnqScYg%3D%3D