So Gone

Infobox Single
Name = So Gone
Artist = Monica


from Album = After the Storm
Format = Digital download, ring tone, 12" single, CD single
Released = April 8, 2003 (North America)
September 2, 2003 (Australia)
October 21, 2003 (Canada)
Recorded = 2003; Hit Factory Criteria
(Miami, Florida)
Genre = R&B, hip hop soul
Length = 4:02 (album version)
3:26 (radio edit)
Label = J
Writer = Zyah Ahmonuel, Kenneth Cunningham, Missy Elliott, Jamahl Rye
Producer = Missy Elliott,
Spike & Jamahl (co-production)
Last single = "Too Hood"
(2002)
This single = "So Gone"
(2003)
Next single = "Knock Knock"
(2003)

"So Gone" is a song by American R&B singer Monica. It was written by rapper-producer Missy Elliott, Kenneth Cunningham, and Jamahl Rye and co-produced by Elliott and duo Spike & Jamahl for Monica's fourth studio album "After the Storm" (2003), incorporating a sample of the 1976 recording "You Are Number One," penned by Zyah Ahmonuel and performed by The Whispers.

Following the less successful chart performances of previous singles "All Eyez on Me" and "Too Hood," the song was released on April 8, 2003 in the United States as the album's leading single. "So Gone" became Monica's biggest commercial successes in years, reaching number 10 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100 and the top of the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart, becoming Monica's first chart topper since 1998's "The First Night." [ [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=Hot+R%26B%2FHip-Hop+Songs&g=Year-end+Singles&year=2003 Billboard: Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs - 2003 ] . "Billboard.com". Retrieved on January 27, 2007.]

Writing and recording

"So Gone" was one out of three new Elliott-produced additions to partially re-worked "After the Storm", commissioned by J Records head and executive producer Clive Davis after Missy Elliott's 2002 success with her own studio album "Under Construction" and the delay of Monica's original third studio album "All Eyez On Me" the year before. It was conceived during a studio session week in the Goldmind recordings studios in Miami, Florida in early 2003, with most of it being "done in probably three or four" hours. "'So Gone' takes you back to when people first heard me," Monica said in an interview with "MTV News". "It's got that feeling like no holds barred, not trying to cater to any one audience." [cite web | title= "Monica Revises Leaked LP With Help From Missy Elliott"| work= vh1.com| url=http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1471325/20030416/monica.jhtml| accessdate= April 17|accessyear=2003]

Lyrically, the "So Gone" protagonist sings about almost losing her mind over an unfaithful man. "The song is saying that I'm so gone that I'm not thinking straight," the singer told "Jet Magazine". "I do that sometimes because I'm pretty hard. She [Missy Elliott] may have taken some of the real life from me and put it into song." [cite web | title= "Monica: shares life's lessons on new CD 'After The Storm'"| work= Jet Magazine| url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_5_104/ai_105917570| accessdate= July 28|accessyear=2003] The track features additional production by duo Spike & Jamahl, and while singer Tweet and rapper Busta Rhymes joined the recording sessions to provide vocals for a remix version of the song, Elliott also proposed Monica to start rapping over the record - a venture, that would become "second nature" to her: "Missy kept telling me that I act like a rapper so she encouraged me to rap on "So Gone" and "Knock Knock." She would put together rhythms." [cite web | title= "Monica: Portrait"| work= EJams.com| url=http://www.ejams.com/monica.htm| accessdate= January 27|accessyear=2007]

Music video

in a handful of scenes.

The plot of the video follows the single's topic of alleged infidelity, showing Monica as wounded girlfriend, who believes having discovered her man's hidden secret. "The video is like [Luke] and I are in a relationship," Monica told in an interview with "MTV News". "In my mind I think he's cheating. As you see in the video, my mind's playing tricks on me. I've destroyed his home and all this stuff for no reason. I get arrested as you would in real life." The video ends with Monica being taken away in a police cruiser, introducing a cliffhanger, which leads to the video for the album's second single, "Knock Knock." [ [http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1471325/20030416/monica.jhtml "Monica Revises Leaked LP With Help From Missy Elliott"] . "MTV News". April 17, 2003. Retrieved on January 24, 2007.]

The "So Gone" video premiered worldwide on April 23, 2003 at the end on BET's "Access Granted". [ [http://tvshows.aol.com/episode/-/access-granted/EP4570510065 Access Granted - Episode Details] . "AOL.com". Retrieved on January 24, 2007.] It charted well on several video-chart countdowns, including peak positions of number 2 on BET's "106 & Park", and of number 6 on MTV's "TRL".

Chart performance

"So Gone" was one of Monica's biggest commercial successes in years, debuting at number 66 and reaching number 10 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100. The song's relatively high peak position on the Hot 100 contrasted with the chart performance of most of the singer's previous singles released between 1999 and 2003, some of which had failed to chart on the Hot 100 or even its "bubbling under" chart. It, however, became Monica's tenth domestical top 10 hit of her career and her first top 10 single since "Angel of Mine" in early 1999. "So Gone" stayed in the top forty for twenty weeks and was ranked thirty-ninth on the Hot 100 2003 year-end charts.

The song also spent five consecutive weeks at number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart, becoming Monica's first chart topper since 1998's "The First Night" and sixth number-one hit in total. [ [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=Hot+R%26B%2FHip-Hop+Songs&g=Year-end+Singles&year=2003 Billboard: Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs - 2003 ] . "Billboard.com". Retrieved on January 27, 2007.] It was ranked fourth on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles 2003 year-end charts. The "Scum frog Club Mix" of the song also spend one week on top of the Hot Dance Club Play chart. Outside North America, "So Gone" received a limited 12" vinyl release only, and as a result achieved minor success in non-U.S. markets. While it still reached moderately successful number 17 on the Canadian chart, it peaked at number 77 on the UK singles chart only.

Formats and tracklistings

These are the formats and track listings of major single-releases of "So Gone".

US CD single I

# "So Gone" (radio edit)
# "So Gone" (album version)
# "So Gone" (remix; featuring Busta Rhymes)
# "So Gone" (Part II)
# "U Should've Known Better"

US CD single II

# "So Gone" (album version)
# "All Eyez on Me" (urban radio edit)

Official remixes/versions

# "So Gone" (remix; featuring Busta Rhymes & Tweet)
# "So Gone" (Remix; featuring Missy Elliott)
# "So Gone" (Smach Your Dub mix)
# "So Gone" (full vocal edit mix)
# "So Gone" (Scum frog club mix)

Credits and personnel

* Lead vocals: Monica Arnold
* Background vocals: Monica Arnold
* Additional vocals: Tweet
* Vocal production - Monica Arnold, Missy Elliott
* Assisted by Marcella Araica, and Javier Valeverde
* Audio mixing - Scott Kieklak
* Mastered by Tom Coyne
* Recorded by Demacio Castellon at Hit Factory Criteria, Miami, Florida

Charts

ee also

*Number-one dance hits of 2003 (USA)
*R&B number-one hits of 2003 (USA)

References