Big Daddy Kane - Cause I Can Do It Right

The 100 Best Rap Singles of 1990: Big Daddy Kane

“Cause I Can Do It Right” is an inflection point for a rapper struggling to maintain momentum as a New Jack lover man.

Big Daddy Kane
“Cause I Can Do It Right” (Cold Chillin’)
Billboard chart position: Hot R&B Singles (#22), Hot Rap Singles (#4)

By the time of his third album, A Taste of Chocolate, Big Daddy Kane status as a New Jack lover man seemed destined for self-parody. In retrospect, this may seem a bit unfair: the album also featured hard-hitting Black pride tracks like “Who Am I” (with Malcolm X’s daughter Gamilah Shabazz) and “Dance with the Devil.” But it was “Cause I Can Do It Right” and his “All of Me” collaboration with Barry White that got the singles treatment, and bored fans sparked a downward trend in sales that he never quite reversed. The former sounds similar to “I Get the Job Done,” an earlier 1990 single (from his 1989 album It’s a Big Daddy Thing), but it still has flavor. The self-produced track finds him touting his sexual prowess with plenty of metaphors. “Move over bacon, there’s something meatier,” he brags. It’s fun, but not quite on the level of “Raw.”

Read more: The 100 Best Rap Singles of 1990

Originally published on criticalminded.com. This post has been updated.

RELATED TAGS

Lil Yachty, Let’s Start Here

On Let’s Start Here, Lil Yachty assembles a dusted symphony that feels more like a wispy breeze than a desert storm.

Thes One, Farewell, My Friend

Thes One’s Farewell, My Friend, a tribute to former People Under the Stairs partner Double K, is unabashedly soft and yearning.