#100 the week of June 5, 1999
What was #1? “Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin, in the last of five consecutive weeks at the top.
In 1999, Ant Banks was at the top of the world. One of the leading figures of the Bay Area hip-hop scene, Banks’ production work helped Bay rap icons Too Short and E-40 blow out from the underground. His production work appeared on the soundtracks to hood classics Juice and Menace II Society and Snoop Dogg had recently tapped him to produce a track on his fourth album, No Limit Top Dogg. Banks’ own records featured cameos from luminaries like 2Pac, Ice Cube, and Ice-T. It was a far cry from his high school days selling mixtapes out of a trunk with his pal MC Ant (no relation).
While Banks had released some records of his own, with the new millennium approaching, it was time for him to take center stage. He had released a few albums on his own, but for his coming out party, Banks formed a Yay Area supergroup alongside his pals Rappin’ 4-Tay and Captain Save ‘Em called T.W.D.Y. (The Whole Damn Yay). While T.W.D.Y. might have been a group effort, don’t get it twisted, this was definitively Banks’ project. Not only did he exclusively handle the project’s production, the album was officially titled Ant Banks Presents T.W.D.Y.: Derty Werk.
“Players Holiday” is an upbeat posse track. Built around an interpolation of Bill Withers’ classic “Lovely Day,” it’s optimistic vibe is designed for summer cookouts and new millennium New Year’s Eve parties*. It’s infectious, though a fair amount of that is probably due to the Withers sample. Banks was right to be hopeful, as the Derty Werk album also marked the end of a feud with his one-time collaborator Pooh-Man.
*If my repeated references to the new millennium feel hamfisted, it’s part of the text. Guest vocalist Too Short opens the third verse with “January 1, the year 2000, we getting’ all the money and we ain’t through clownin’.“
I like this song, but given that it’s an optimistic but as a tough song delivered over a looping 70s soul sample, it feels derivative of Ice Cube’s classic “It Was A Good Day.” No shame in being inspired by the greats, but you’ll suffer in comparison. “Players Holiday” would only get to #90, and Ant Banks’ career would similarly stall out in the ‘90s. Derty Werk received mixed reviews and T.W.D.Y.’s second record (released a year later) received a critical and commercial lukewarm response. Banks is still in the game, producing for Too Short and others, but he never quite reached the icon status that was promised to him.
7/10