Remember the Cheetah Girls? The four friends who were the epitome of girl power for everyone who loved watching Disney Channel growing up? Well, it turns out that they weren't always the Cheetah Girls. If you turn the clock all the way back to the turn of the millennium, you'll find that Adrienne Bailon and Kiely Williams (a.k.a. Chanel Simmons and Aquanette "Aqua" Walker) were once two-thirds of a popular girl group by the name of 3LW, sharing the bill with Naturi Naughton (a.k.a. Tasha St. Patrick of the Starz TV original Power).
The group, hailing from Newark and New York City, came to be in early 1999 when Kiely asked her mother (also the momager of 3LW), Tse, to start her own musical group, and after a series of auditions, Adrienne and Naturi rounded out the trio. If you were old enough to remember the pop music scene in the early 2000s, many thought of 3LW as the perfect hybrid of iconic girl groups Destiny's Child and TLC, although as their acronym says, they were little women, namely teenagers. Ironically, they even went on the TRL Tour in 2001 with Destiny's Child. Today, their most memorable songs are "No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)", "Playas Gon' Play" and "I Do (Wanna Get Close to You)", although they've been overshadowed not only by more popular girl groups but their future group the Cheetah Girls.
But, let's be real here: "No More" deserves more acclaim than what it's got. That's just in general, but in my opinion, "Playas Gon' Play" was 1000 times better.
As soon as you hear that sunny guitar chord and those ethereal synths, you can't help but put this song on repeat. It continues for the next four measures, then it segues into a lit hip-hop soul groove. The lyrics are relatable on so many levels, and if you ask me, they're even better than anything that the Cheetah Girls put out. It's a true testament to female empowerment.
Even more iconic? Kiely's lisp! Black Twitter and other urban outlets made so many amazing memes about it. I mean, just check out these lyrics:
I'm getting a little tired of your broken promitheth, promitheth
Lookin' at your pager
Theein' different numberth, numberth
Call you on your thell
You're hangin' with the fellath, fellath
Hangin' with my girlth
You alwayth gettin' jealouth, jealouth
I wath with you when
You didn't have no dollath, no dollath
Hangin' at the crib
Chillin' with your momma, your momma
Never fronted you
Never brought the drama, the drama
Now you flip the thcript
Playa pleathe...
Now, I'm now mocking the lisp, or trying to offend people who have a lisp, but it's just something that makes this song so compelling to listen to. But the choreography, on the other hand...
https://media.giphy.com/media/26DOG8sIiZf1z88bC/giphy.gif
Not to mention, Kiely's raps. She actually made two for the song. Here's the original:
So what, playa chill now
Tell me how you gon' cite me when I found out
Honey gotta break it down, down
I said it ain't no thing
Girl, what's my name?
Kiely, Kiely
Look me in the face and tell me
What the dealie, dealie
Oh, you want to go shade now
But I'm paid now, I know that you hate that
Oh, you got the one now, you warm now
'Cause you thought you'd come right back, save that
You could do whatever to me, and be together with me
Like you do better than me
No more, never for me
And here's the second and more popular:
A yo, you promised me, Kate Spade
But that was last year
Boy in the eighth grade
And you ain't biggie, baby boy
So it ain't one more chance
When your friends around u don't wanna hold my hand
And now you see a girl stylin' and wildin' inside the mix
Hoppin out the whips, the whips, the 5, the 6
Yes fly chrome, so pardon my tone
Here go a quarter, go call Tyrone
Both those raps were on point for dealing with young heartbreak.
As for what happened next to 3LW after this iconic bop, they released another album two years later, only to collapse from inner turmoil when Naturi left the group after major tension with management, culminating in a KFC attack from Kiely (listen for more here). Sales quickly plummeted, and while they got Jessica Benson to replace her, Adrienne and Kiely joined forces with Raven-Symoné and Sabrina Bryan and the rest is history.
