Why did "I Know What You Want" do so well?

[Radical347]

You have an un-catchy, unmemorable, discordant song by a rapper who could barely scrape the Top 40 chart and featuring a has-been. I didn't notice much promotion for this either. Yet somehow this goes all the way to the Top 10. How?

[insect2]

LOL, talk about coming out of nowhere. But I agree. He had a much more deserving song in "Pass The Courvoisier" that got jipped at #40. "Break Ya Neck" was also somewhat deserving, but I didn't like it that much.

Nonetheless, I can think of at least a few songs that should have done big at pop instead of this. "What's It Gonna Be" with Janet Jackson is the one that most easily comes to mind. This was easily his most boring and dull song to date.

Come to think of it, that doesn't quite answer your question. Just how did this song peak so high if there was little promotion? The answer of "An artist's worst songs always do best" won't work for me, though.

[Keith3000]

I guess you can say it was just an R&B single that was released at the right time. It came out at a time when rap/R&B collaborations were hot (well things haven't exactly changed since then ;)) and this contributed to the song's success despite Mariah being out of style. Like I had mentioned sometime before, I feel the song would have done as well, if not better, had Ashanti or Alicia Keys sung instead.

It's obvious that had this single come out between '97 and '00, while it still would have been a huge urban hit, it wouldn't have done as well on pop at all. It probably would have done no better than tracks like "What's It Gonna Be" or even "Satisfy You". IKWYW obviously wasn't a hit because of either Mariah or Busta --- it was basically the timing that was responsible, plus, one has to admit, it was more catchy of a song than Mariah's other rap collaborations and was more suited to pop radio.

[allow that]

This is such a great song... it\s got a nice beat, its got a breat flow to it... the chorus is fun to sing along with. I definitely think its got a lot of appeal. One of the best rap songs of 2003!

[af18c]

HowieDayFan said:

You have an un-catchy

the song is SO catchy...i dunno wat ur talkin about!

simply because its a good song.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

It took me months to finally remember what the chorus sounded like whenever someone mentioned the song. I would know it to hear it but outside of it, I wouldn't be able to just start humming the song without hearing it first. So the song definately didn't have a long lasting impression for me... only the fact that I heard it often helped it though.

[Matt4319]

af18c said:

the song is SO catchy...i dunno wat ur talkin about!

i cant tell wat ur sayin.

[irice22]

It's weird how it did as well as it did, I agree. Howveer, I don't usually like rap/hip-hop, but I liked this song. Maybe the song had an appeal to both rap listeners and pop listeners.

[Deleted]

In my area this was the biggest phenomenon until "Milkshake". People were always singing the hook everywhere I went. I don't understand how a fan of Hot AC who probably doesn't live in an urban leaning area is going to know if this song is hot or not.

[j]

Well the lyrics were very dumb, but it was quite catchy when it was out. Of course, I can't stand to listen to it anymore.

[Mega248]

Even though I did chart "IKWYW" for a few weeks, I'm not really that crazy about it now. I agree that "Pass The Corvoisier" should've been the song that went top 5. Easily Busta's best song.

[jond7699]

It was incredibly catchy. A hot video , tight lyrics. There are many things that help this song become as huge as it did. Mariah's cooing was top notch. I was actually surprised this song didn't go to #1.

[strong4PMB!]

k said:

...It was quite catchy when it was out, [but] I can't stand to listen to it anymore.

[ExActLy99]

Even though I did chart "IKWYW" for a few weeks, I'm not really that crazy about it now. I agree that "Pass The Corvoisier" should've been the song that went top 5. Easily Busta's best song.

Yeah, "Pass The Corvoisier" was a good song imo, it's strange how radio works, I guess radio likes to play the crappiest of the crappiest sometimes. Sometimes they take an artist worst song to the top and their best they don't even play!

[George Tropicana]

Radio was waiting for the right song to award Mariah a hit!

[Au$tin]

Featuring a has been. 💀

This post did not age well.

[Dreams]

LOL! I loved this song as a kid. 😊

[leoapp]

Oct 18, 2021 15:45:30 GMT -5 Au$tin said:

Featuring a has been. 💀

This post did not age well.

Noone expected that "has been" would become the best selling artist of 2005

[bat1990]

Now the lead artist is the has-been and MC is perennial.

[gikem]

I remember listening to a podcast episode that talked a fair bit about Busta Rhymes’ career and I remember they said that this song was P. Diddy’s idea. He told Busta that he needed to appeal more to women if he wanted to remain commercially viable in the 2000s. To Diddy’s credit, it worked.

[jenglisbe]

This song is still remembered. 220 million YouTube views and 160 million Spotify streams.

[leoapp]

This thread was a real proof how extreme many people counted Mariah out back in 2004 after Glitter fiasco and CharmB failure.

Even the success of I Know What You Want was considered an anomaly, because Boy (I Need You) and Bringin' On The Heartbreak all missed the Bubbling Under Hot 100, becoming her 2 biggest flops at that time, ironically during I Know What You Want's climbing on Hot 100.

And this thread was also made when Mariah toured soooooo hard around the world (mainly in Europe) to re-build her legacy back, because she was the biggest artist of the previous decade but declined too fast.

So glad, she shocked everyone 1 year later with one of the biggest comebacks story ever... I was really happy for her. I was still a highschool boy in 2004. Lol.