8 September 2001
Through the ’90s and up to the end of 2000 our rap chart-toppers were mostly by children’s TV characters and crass white men. So, Eve at number one feels like welcome progress on that front. She had already featured impressively with a verse of her own on the fabulous 1999 single ‘You Got Me’ by The Roots and Erykah Badu, then had some minor Irish chart hits after that. (I’m also partial to ‘Who’s That Girl?’, her single immediately before this.) If ‘Let Me Blow Ya Mind’ wasn’t her first major solo run-out, it was for Gwen Stefani, formerly of this parish with US ska-punk band No Doubt’s power ballad ‘Don’t Speak’ and at this point before her solo career not an obvious choice to appear on a rap single.
‘Let Me Blow Ya Mind’ doesn’t live up to that intriguing premise, though. The guitar lick is catchy at first, but after its umpteen-millionth use on the track it loses its appeal as a hook. Eve is a likeable rapper, and Stefani works well with her here, but ultimately it’s a fairly risk-free venture. I imagine the priority for both sets of ‘people’ behind these two acts was to give them a sure-fire mainstream hit and copperfasten them as solo stars, rather than push the envelope creatively. Easy to like, but hard to get worked up about, and certainly not mind-blowing.
