"If I Had No Loot" is a song by American R&B group

Tony! Toni! Toné! Tony! Toni! Toné! was an American Soul music, soul/Contemporary R&B, R&B band (music), band from Oakland, California, popular during the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s. During the band's heyday, it was composed of D'wayne Wiggins on lead voc ...

It was released on June 1, 1993, as the

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release ...

from their 1993 album, '' Sons of Soul''. The song was produced by Tony! Toni! Toné! and co-written by group member Raphael Wiggins, who said that it is about fair-weather friends. It has a

new jack swing New jack swing, new jack, or swingbeat is a fusion genre of the rhythms and production techniques of hip hop and dance-pop, and the urban contemporary sound of R&B. Spearheaded by producers Teddy Riley and Bernard Belle, new jack swing was ...

beat, pronounced guitar licks, and vocal samples from

Boogie Down Productions Boogie Down Productions (BDP) was an American hip hop group originally composed of KRS-One, D-Nice, and DJ Scott La Rock. DJ Scott La Rock was murdered on August 27, 1987, five months after the release of BDP's debut album, '' Criminal Minde ...

' 1987 song "Remix for P Is Free" and

Ice Cube An ice cube is a small piece of ice, which is typically rectangular as viewed from above and trapezoidal as viewed from the side. Ice cubes are products of mechanical refrigeration and are usually produced to cool beverages. They may be p ...

's 1991 song "The Wrong Nigga to Fuck Wit". The song became a hit for the group, peaking at number seven on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It was certified

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

(RIAA) and sold 500,000 copies in the United States. "If I Had No Loot" was named the tenth best single of 1993 by ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

''s annual

Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...

critics' poll.

Background

"If I Had No Loot" was recorded for the group's third album '' Sons of Soul'', which was recorded and released in 1993. The song was produced by Tony! Toni! Toné! and written by group member Raphael Wiggins, Juan Bautista, and Will Harris. Session musician John "Jubu" Smith played a

Fender Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successfulLes Paul had built a prototype solid body ...

on the song.

Music and lyrics

"If I Had No Loot" incorporates a

beat, pronounced guitar licks, and a tempo of 108

beats per minute Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ( ...

. It has 1960s

Stax Streaming API for XML (StAX) is an application programming interface ( API) to read and write XML documents, originating from the Java programming language community. Traditionally, XML APIs are either: * DOM based - the entire document is read i ...

southern soul Southern soul is a type of soul music that emerged from the Southern United States. The music originated from a combination of styles, including blues (both 12 bar and jump), country, early R&B, and a strong gospel influence that emanated fr ...

influences. The song also contains vocal samples from hip hop songs, including the "da-da-da-day" chant from

' 1987 song "Remix for P Is Free" and the line "and you can ''new jack swing'' on my nuts!" from

's 1991 song "The Wrong Nigga to Fuck Wit". According to Raphael Wiggins, the song is about " fair-weather friends" and "people who come around you for fraudulent reasons". ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and ...

'' found its theme similar to

the O'Jays The O'Jays are an American R&B group from Canton, Ohio, formed in 1958 and originally consisting of Eddie Levert, Walter Lee Williams, William Powell, Bobby Massey, and Bill Isles. The O'Jays made their first chart appearance with the minor h ...

' 1972 song " Back Stabbers".

Commercial performance

"If I Had No Loot" was released by

Polygram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be ...

and

Wing Records Wing Records was a record label subsidiary of Mercury Records founded in 1955, that found its greatest success during the late 1950s. In 1986, the label was revived by Mercury's parent company, PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational ent ...

on June 1, 1993, as the

from '' Sons of Soul'' (1993) and received frequent radio airplay. Its

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devi ...

received heavy rotation on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

and BET. The single reached number seven on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, on which it charted for 21 weeks. It reached its peak position on August 7, 1993. On August 11, the single was certified

by the

(RIAA); it sold 500,000 copies domestically. In Canada, "If I Had No Loot" reached number 17 on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimension ...

'' Top 100 Singles, on which it charted for 16 weeks. It charted for 16 weeks and peaked at number eight in New Zealand. In Australia, the single reached number 12, spent 22 weeks in the top 100, and was certified gold.

Critical reception

Charles Aaron of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' viewed the song as one of the group's best and called it "a splashy tour of 20th century American

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded danc ...

—from jumpin'

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

urban blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African- ...

to '70s funk to hip hop." Aaron found the Ice Cube sample "irrepressible", but felt that the

hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved or indented, such that it can be used to grab onto, connect, or otherwise attach itself onto another object. In a number of uses, one e ...

is instead "how

Dwayne Wiggins D'wayne Patrice Wiggins (born February 14, 1961) is an American singer, guitarist, and record producer best known as the founding member of the 1990s soul/R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné! Early life Wiggins was born in Oakland, California; speci ...

's swingin', bluesy guitar becomes its own break-beat. Meet the Meters of the '90s, straight up. The

Brand New Heavies The Brand New Heavies is an acid jazz and funk group formed in 1985 in Ealing in west London. Centered around songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Simon Bartholomew and Andrew Levy, the core members of the group since its founding, Brand New He ...

aren't even close."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

of ''

'' cited "If I Had No Loot" as a highlight on ''Sons of Soul''. The song was voted number 10 on ''The Village Voice''s annual

critics' poll for 1993. Music journalist Michaelangelo Matos ranked "If I Had No Loot" number 68 on his list of Top 100 Singles of the 1990s.

Personnel

Credits adapted from

12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

release. * Tony! Toni! Toné! – producer *

Gerry Brown Gerry “The Gov.” Brown is a recording engineer, mixer and music producer based in Los Angeles, best known for his work with artists including Whitney Houston, John Legend, Earth, Wind & Fire, Madonna, Sting, Prince, Phil Collins, Marcus Mi ...

– mixing * Ed Eckstine – executive producer * Raphael Wiggins – co-executive producer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Release history

References

External links

*
"If I Had No Loot"
at

WhoSampled WhoSampled is a website and app database of information about sampled music or sample-based music, cover songs and remixes. History Nadav Poraz founded the site in London, England in 2008, as a way to track musical samples and cover songs. ...

(list of sampling connections) {{Authority control 1993 songs Music videos directed by Sanji (director) Polydor Records singles PolyGram singles Songs written by Eddie Floyd Songs written by Ice Cube Songs written by Raphael Saadiq Songs written by Steve Cropper Tony! Toni! Toné! songs Wing Records singles