Sisqo - The Star Beyond the Thong
I recently had the pleasure to witness Dru Hill live last summer at their Summer Block Party Tour alongside Jodeci and SWV in Charlotte, NC. Despite the persistent sound issues and the sweltering heat, it was amazing to see Sisqo pushing 50 years old sounding just as he did 20 years ago. Now granted, I did understand this was not a Sisqo concert and not taking away the solo musical work from his accompanying members, but I would’ve loved to hear more of Sisqo’s solo work versus just his “Billboard charting features” such as “What These Bitches Want From Me by DMX” and “How Many Licks by Lil’ Kim”. Sisqo was set up to be the “Beyonce” of Dru Hill and had a successful solo album in his own right, and according to their Unsung special, that fact led to the dissolution of Dru Hill. So why isn’t it highlighted?
Of course, his most iconic solo song was the “Thong Song”, a song inspired by a true story of one of his first sexual encounters with a thong. Now, I’m not surprised by this song reaching this pinnacle of success. With rewriting the string line of “Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles” and investing his money into the visual effects found in his music video, it was bound to turn into a bop.Â
Like fickle humans tend to do, we forget. We forget to show the same appreciation for the body of work that one bop encompassed. True R&B connoisseurs respect his additional single “Incomplete” as a beautiful ballad, co-written by another R&B legend Montell Jordan. He also slid in some very sensual bedroom bops with “How Can I Love U 2Nite” and “So Sexual” which shows Sisqo’s range from the up-tempo “Thong Song”. In short, the “Unleash the Dragon” album is home to a lot of bops and underrated ballads.
So, a question I ask so often is, why did the success stop there? He was on track to be the Beyonce of Dru Hill. Initially, I would assume it was due to all of the legal woes like his Victoria's Secret lawsuit, his publishing settlement, and unpaid royalties lawsuit that his most successful single gave him, but that was not the case.  In his own words, he didn’t play the industry game. Instead of utilizing label recommendations, he seemed to always leverage his inner Baltimore circle in the sectors of his musical career which resulted in Sisqo being blackballed and penned as “difficult”. Just like Janet Hubert, the original Aunt Viv, once said, being labeled “difficult” (especially as a Black woman) is the kiss of death. Nonetheless, the R&B community is thankful for his solo contributions despite it being a short time, it was a good time.
