Don't Be Afraid (Aaron Hall song)
"Don't Be Afraid" is a song by American singer Aaron Hall. It was produced by Hank Shocklee and Gary G-Wiz and spent two weeks at #1 on the US R&B chart (making it Aaron Hall's highest charting R&B hit) and peaked at #44 on the Billboard Hot 100.[2] It was one of the singles taken from the soundtrack for the 1992 film Juice starring 2Pac.
| "Don't Be Afraid" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Aaron Hall | ||||
| from the album Juice and The Truth | ||||
| Released | March 31, 1992 | |||
| Recorded | October 1991 | |||
| Genre | New jack swing[1] | |||
| Length | 5:19 (LP version) 4:50 (single version) | |||
| Label | MCA | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Aaron Hall, Floyd F. Fisher | |||
| Producer(s) | Gary G-Wiz, Hank Shocklee, The Bomb Squad(Nasty Man's Groove remix) | |||
| Aaron Hall singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
The song has four versions. The original uptempo version featured on the Juice soundtrack, the second called "Jazz You Up version," lyrically talks of a man's fantasies with a girl, and convincing her "don't be afraid, girl", which was met with controversy due to its overtly sexual nature. In response, an alternate version to the song was released, called the "Sex You Down Some Mo'" and features a slower tempo and different lyrics and a 4th version which is the Nasty Man's Groove version. One version is on the Juice soundtrack, with the Jazz You Up and Sex You Down Some Mo versions featured on Hall's The Truth album the year after and the fourth on the single.
The "Jazz You Up" version of the song "Don't Be Afraid" appears in the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on fictional new jack swing radio station CSR 103.9. The song's drum loop is sampled from "The Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground.
References
- Josephs, Brian (July 20, 2012). "The 25 Best New Jack Swing Songs". Complex. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 242.