What Would You Do?

Album: City High (2001)
Charted: 3 8
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Songfacts®:

  • This was the debut single for City High; Robby Pardlo (b 1982), Claudette Ortiz (b. 1984), and Ryan Toby (b 1982) all hailed from the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border city of Willingboro. Ryan and Pardlo had worked as a duo until persuaded to recruit Ortiz by their mentor Wyclef Jean and his cousin Jerry Wonder. Ryan explained on his record label's website that Ortiz was signed to differentiate them from the recently signed male duo Product G&B: "Clef, Jerry and our management thought that by adding a girl to the group it would make us even more distinct. And since they had already signed the Product G&B we agreed. Bringing Claudette in just made it all come together, all bases were covered."
  • This is a morality tale of a woman living a hard-knock life who feels compelled to become a stripper to feed her child.
  • Originally released in 1999, a new mix that interpolated Dr. Dre's "The Next Episode" into the bridge was released in 2001 and became a transatlantic Top 10 hit.
  • This contains a sample of Notorious B.I.G's "Things Done Changed."
  • The original version featured in the 1999 film Life.

Comments: 2

  • Dani from OhI said, "Why you up in there dancin' for cash?
    I guess a whole lots changed since I seen you last"

    She's a stripper and a prostitute, trying to pay the bills and feed her kid.
  • Ll from Fort Smile, ArI think the stripper thing is incorrect. In the song it says sleep with a man for a little bit of money. Meaning she's a prostitute not a stripper. Unless she's both but it doesnt talk about her dancing or taking her clothes off for money as far as I remember. Strippers are not all prostitute. Not the same thing.
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