She Ain't Worth It

Album: Glenn Medeiros (1990)
Charted: 12 1
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Songfacts®:

  • If asked to name every #1 hit from the '90s, it's likely you'd miss this one. Glenn Medeiros, born and raised in Hawaii, was just 16 when he had a surprise hit with "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You," a ballad originally recorded by George Benson with a very adult sound. Medeiros' record label, MCA, tried to give him a more age-appropriate sound and image by having him record the upbeat, hip-hop-inflected "She Ain't Worth It." The plan worked: Released as the first single from his third album, the song went to #1 in America.

    Medeiros, though, had a hard time with the underbelly of pop stardom, where your life is open to the public and artists do everything they can to get ahead. His next single, "All I'm Missing Is You," was a minor hit, but he soon fell off the charts. He got out of the music industry and found a career where he wouldn't have to worry about lavish perks or recognition: He became a teacher. Medeiros earned a doctorate and eventually became the principal, then president, at an all-boys Catholic high school near Honolulu called the Saint Louis school.
  • "She Ain't Worth It" features a rap from Bobby Brown, who started rapping on tracks in his days with New Edition and often peppered his solo hits with catchy rap interludes. Bringing in a guest rapper on a pop song was still novel and went a long way toward making this song a hit. The first hit collaboration between pop star and rapper was "Friends" in 1989, a Jody Watley track with guest rhymer Rakim. In that one, Rakim executes his signature mind-bending flows, firing off lines like:

    You used to kiss me and tell me you miss me
    But now you try to glaze me, play me, and diss me


    Bobby Brown was much more accessible as a rapper. Here, he rhymes:

    Better make tracks fast on the double
    The girl's jazzy but she's nothin' but trouble


    It's the kind of anodyne rap that pop radio stations were OK with because it didn't bother their rap-sensitive listeners, but made the song a lot more exciting.

    Over the next few years, many songs tried to replicate this formula, with guest rappers appearing in many pop songs.
  • This song was written by the tunesmiths Antonina Armato and Ian Prince, with Bobby Brown also getting a credit for writing his rap. Armato's credits include "I Still Believe" by Brenda K. Starr and "What Comes Naturally" by Sheena Easton. Prince also co-wrote "Constantly" by Immature.
  • The song is about a girl who's nothing but trouble. Medeiros plays the role of the guy who has to explain to his lovestruck buddy that he should drop her like a bad habit, because there's a lot of girls out there that won't say no. It's not a sentiment Medeiros connected with. "I do like the song, but I'm not too keen about the title," he told Kickin' It Old School. About working with Brown, he added: "Bobby is a good person. He was just surrounded by the wrong people that had a bad influence on him. I enjoyed working with Bobby. He is surely one of the most talented people I have ever met."

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