He Ain't wit Me Now (Tho)

"He Ain't wit Me Now (Tho)" is a song by R&B girl group RichGirl. The song serves as the group's debut single from the girls' self-titled debut album, RichGirl, which was later shelved following the group's disbandment. The single was produced and written by Rich Harrison, who has additionally worked with Beyoncé on her chart-topping "Crazy in Love" and Amerie on "1 Thing". The song was digitally released on June 2, 2009 on iTunes, and released onto Rhythmic and Urban radio the following July.

"He Ain't wit Me Now (Tho)"
Single by RichGirl
from the album RichGirl
ReleasedJune 2, 2009
Recorded2009
GenreR&B, Hip hop
Length3:45
LabelRichcraft/Jive
Songwriter(s)Rich Harrison[1]
Producer(s)Rich Harrison
RichGirl singles chronology
"24's"
(2009)		 "He Ain't wit Me Now (Tho)"
(2009)		 "Swagger Right"
(2010)

Many critics have given positive reviews on the single, complimenting Harrison's beat as "hectic" and "blinding" and being in huge favor of the ladies vocal-performances, stating that when both are added together it creates a song as "dangerous" as "He Ain't wit Me Now (Tho)." A music video for the single was shot and directed by Ray Kay and released on May 22, 2009.[2]

Background and release

The song serves as the lead single of the group's self-entitled debut album RichGirl.[2] The song was released for digital download on June 2, 2009.[3] In the month of July 2009, the single was released onto Rhythmic, Urban and Urban Club radio.[4] The song was additionally released on a free EP distributed by the girls' official website, along with the group's promotional single "24's" and three snippets of songs expected to be included on their debut album.[5]

Live performances

The song has been performed multiple times by the girls, most of which have been at exclusive concerts and televised appearances. While touring with Beyoncé Knowles as the opening act of the I Am... Tour, the girls included the song on their setlist, performing the single in outfits similar to the music video with ladders on stage.[6] The song was additionally performed at many exclusive concerts held by certain radio stations including BB Kings and a Kiss FM concert.[7]

Critical reception

The song received very positive reviews by critics most of which complimented the girls debuting with such an explosion of base and vocal power-houses. Daniel of MTV Buzzworthy stated "I do expect that this jam is gonna bounce your ass all the way through summer before you even notice school's out. Get wise to RichGirl and brace yourself for more high-drama R&B out of these ATL all-stars, coming your way soon."[8] Ben Ratliff of The New York Times put the song on a list of "Notable Dispatches From the Edge of Jazz and Beyond" that came in at No. 3 on the "Top Songs".[9] With a rating of seven out of ten, NewMusicReviews named the single decent, stating that although it might not find multiple chart-success it may still receive plenty of "action."[10] Awarding the song three stars out of five, DJBooth showed great praise for the song stating that although their album doesn't have a release date, that all may change following possible success with the single.[11] Felipe Delerme of FADER praised the song for bringing back the "glory days of Glam&B," adding that they saved a spot in an "R&B Honeys desktop folder" for a group like this to perform this kind of song.[12] Delerme ended his review by stating that the song's release could mark the return to a simpler time.[12]

Billboard named the song No. 91 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.[13]

Composition

"He Ain't wit Me Now (Tho)" has been paced at mid-tempo, seeing production duties by Rich Harrison, who has additionally worked with Beyoncé on her chart-topping "Crazy in Love" and Amerie on "1 Thing".[14] Instrumentally, the song features Harrison creating a blinding beat, built around a loop of mid-century Hungarian classical music, that has been described as being "inspired by absurdist literature".[8] Described as a "BANANAS" beat by FADER, the song sounds as though it were to sample an Eastern European 20th century quartet, referring to György Kurtág.[15]

Vocally, the ladies of RichGirl perform "acrobatics" over Harrison's beat which has been additionally been described as thunderous.[16] Harrison enhances the ladies’ vocals with a percussion-brass-cello combination that has been compared to that of an "NFL Films-esque instrumental."[17]

Music video
"What I wanted to do with it was to communicate all of their energy visually and I also wanted to create something that would give them their own sort of iconic edge to their visual when they first come out."

—Director Ray Kay on the importance of the group's first video.[18]

The music video was shot in a studio in Los Angeles, California and directed by Ray Kay.[19][20] A behind the scenes look into creating the music video was released on April 29, 2009, showing interviews with the music video's director and the members of the group RichGirl.[18] Member Lyndriette commented on the song's video stating "The hardest thing about training for this video was just [the] how physical it was, dancing and getting choreography and having to become a 'dancer' for that period of time before you actually go in the shoot."[18]

The video seems to borrow aspects from Madonna's 1995 music video "Human Nature", in the concept of fashion and choreography used.[21]

The music video for the single was released on May 22, 2009, revolving around the girls dressed in black costumes, dancing to the song in high spirit.[14] The video begins with all the girls walking to the front of the frame wearing tight latex outfits. As the bass of the song increases the camera begins to shake and ceases whenever the base or vocals aren't as loud. The girls are later shown in full-length dancing, until the first verse starts. During Lyndriette's verse she is shown lying down in a large black square frame which cuts between her being in the frame by herself or with men or ladies of the group in it. The music video continues with each girl on top of a square figure during their verse. Seven and Audra pose in a white square frame that is standing up, and Brave sings her verse on top of a box that is being spun around by men as she keeps her face towards the camera. The music video ends with the girls walking away from the first shot as the lights close.

Daniel of MTV Buzzworthy gave the video a very positive review stating "This 'He Ain't Wit You Now (Tho)' clip is so off-the-charts summer stanknasty, we gotta do it backwards and roll it right now. As you heard in the video above, all this adds up to some serious heat."[8] Daniel additionally complimented the girls by comparing their choreography to that of Michael Jackson and stating that they "create serious heat" once their vocals are added into the mix.[8] Rap-Up called the video "high-gloss" during its premiere.[2] Angel of ConcreteLoop favored the video, stating "They say the music biz goes in circles and it’s looking like the girl groups are definitely making a comeback."[22] FADER complimented the song's accompanying video as "BANANAS," showing great anxiety over the group's future, before complimenting Rich Harrison on forming a group like this.[15]

Chart performance

The song debuted on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at number ninety-six on the week of August 8, 2009.[23]

Chart (2009) Peak
position
Billboard Hot Dance Club Play[24] 31
Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs[23] 96

Release history
Release dates, record label and format details
Country Date Format Label
United States[3][4] June 2, 2009 Digital Download Richcraft/Jive
July 2009 Rhythm
Urban
Urban Club
gollark: Except the few in the background.
gollark: I meant more that it seems to entirely lack tall buildings.
gollark: Wow, that is a *very* flat city.
gollark: Excellent idea. It totally wouldn't lose its knowledge of things like grammar and spelling and words existing.
gollark: It is trained on lots of text from the Internet, and the poems there are actually bad.

References
  1. http://repertoire.bmi.com/title.asp?blnWriter=True&blnPublisher=True&blnArtist=True&keyID=10905251&ShowNbr=0&ShowSeqNbr=0&querytype=WorkID%5B%5D
  2. "Video: Richgirl – 'He Ain't Wit Me Now (Tho)'". Rap-Up.com. 2009-05-22. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  3. "He Ain't Wit Me Now (Tho) – Single by Richgirl – Download He Ain't Wit Me Now (Tho) – Single on iTunes". Itunes.apple.com. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  4. "He Ain't Wit Me Now (Tho)". AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  5. "FREE RICHGIRL EP For Download | The Official Rich Girl Site". Myrichgirl.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-26. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  6. Nuts.co.uk. "Beyonce and Richgirl Live | Search | Video". nuts.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-02-16.
  7. Nuts.co.uk. "Search | Video". nuts.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-02-16.
  8. "New Video: RichGirl, 'He Ain't Wit Me Now (Tho)' » MTV Buzzworthy Blog". Buzzworthy.mtv.com. 2009-05-28. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  9. Ratliff, Ben (December 20, 2009). "Notable Dispatches From the Edge of Jazz and Beyond". The New York Times.
  10. Wowie. "New Single Review – Richgirl – He Ain't Wit Me Now (Tho) | New Music Reviews, Music News, Music Videos, Lyrics and much more!". Newmusicreviews.net. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2011-02-16.
  11. Contributed by Burmy Listen to More: Club, R&B, Pop. "RichGirl – He Ain't Wit Me Now (Tho) – Listen". Djbooth.net. Retrieved 2012-04-23.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. "Richgirl, "He Ain't Wit Me Now Tho" " The FADER". Thefader.com. 2009-04-24. Archived from the original on 2016-01-27. Retrieved 2012-04-23.
  13. "100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time: Critics' Picks". Billboard. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  14. "Unavailable News Item". IMDb. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  15. "Video: Rich Girl, "He Ain't Wit Me Now Tho" « The FADER". Thefader.com. 2009-05-28. Retrieved 2012-04-23.
  16. "Richgirl Sound On The Money With Slinky "Swagger Right" | Music News, Reviews, and Gossip on". Idolator.com. 2010-07-26. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  17. Contributed by Burmy Listen to More: Club, R&B, Pop. "RichGirl – He Ain't Wit Me Now (Tho) – Listen Now". Djbooth.net. Retrieved 2011-02-16.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. "Richgirl – He Ain't Wit Me Now (Tho) Behind The Scenes". Nuts.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  19. "Richgirl: Money in the Bank". Rap-Up.com. 2009-04-29. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  20. "RichGirl: Money in the Bank". Rap-Up. April 29, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-30.
  21. "» Music Video: Richgirl – He Ain'T Wit Me Now (Tho) // 'Concreteloop.Com' – Quality Not Quantity". Concreteloop.com. 2009-05-28. Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  22. "Music Video: Richgirl – He Ain'T Wit Me Now (Tho)". Concreteloop.Com. 2009-05-28. Archived from the original on 2012-03-29. Retrieved 2012-04-23.
  23. "Top Hip-Hop and R&B Songs & Singles Charts". Billboard.com. 2009-08-08. Retrieved 2012-02-20.
  24. "Oh No They Didn't! – Six New Girl Groups Who Are Vying For Your Attention". Community.livejournal.com. Archived from the original on 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2012-02-20.
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