mya: it's all about me.

dl: MYA f/ SISQO - It's All About Me (alt)

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Take It Back Thursday...uh, is a little late this week. I suppose since this is the first time I've done this, I could have just called it Take It Back Friday, but let's not get into that. In this series of posts, I will be covering songs of the past, which I will loosely define as anything from the 1930s to last year. Because sometimes it just gets damn boring writing about new shit. When possible, I will try to give updates on where the artist's career is now.

Mya's voice first reached our ears on the chorus of the 1998 single "Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)", but her first proper release as a solo artist was the Sisqo-assisted bedroom jam "It's All About Me". I'll never forget the tone which she delivers the opening lines, "I cook your dinner, I wash your clothes. Baby hell no, that's not the way it goes. It's all about me tonight." When paired with the video's visuals of that red mini-skirt and Ms. Harrison's seductive dance moves, it was enough to make any 13 year-old boy's mind wander. I mean, she was basically making love to the air around her in a way that makes the phrase "making love" not sound revolting.

As far as vocals go, Mya's most memorable moments are her sexiest--"It's All About Me", "My Love Is Like...Wo!". Of the three singers featured on 2001's "Lady Marmalade", Mya blatantly has the weakest voice after Pink and Christina Aguilera, but she naturally slips into the burlesque role by playing up her sex kitten image. None of the three singles ("Ayo", "Lock U Down", "Ridin") released to promote Mya's 2007 album Liberation managed to recapture this carnal magic, and I indirectly consider this the reason the album was shelved in the US.

After severing her ties with Motown, Mya has signed to Manhattan Records and recently released Sugar & Spice in Japan. The new album finds Mya destroying Diana King's "Shy Guy", relying far too much on cheesy dance tracks and trying to bring her sexy back with the Ne-Yo penned "Paradise". It leaves me wondering what would have happened if Sisqo had never gone solo and made the "Thong Song", leaving him more time to produce sultry songs for Mya and less time to host Sisqo's Shakedown.

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BONER TRACK: MYA - Shy Guy (Diana King cover) (alt)

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