Ain't Nothin' Goin' On but the Rent
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin' --"Nothing from Nothing" (1974) by Billy Preston "You got to have a J-O-B if you want to be-with-me" --"Ain't Nothin' Goin' On but the Rent" (1986) by Gwen Guthrie |
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"Ain't Nothin' Goin' On but the Rent" is a 1986 song by American singer Gwen Guthrie. It was released as the lead single from her fourth album, Good to Go Lover (1986), on Polydor Records. It became the biggest hit of Guthrie's career, and the song's title became a semi-popular catchphrase among many women throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The line "You got to have a J-O-B if you want to be-with-me" is set to a melody line that recurs throughout "Doctor Love", a 1977 disco hit by First Choice.
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Critical reception
Alan Jones from Music Week gave the 1993 remix three out of five. He wrote, "A disappointing seven-inch remix by Nigel Wright is stale and one-dimensional, but the original, still sounding fresh, and a radical E-Lustrious remix are more than enough to score a hit." James Hamilton from the magazine's RM Dance Update noted, "1986 garage anthem's radical blippily thundering E-Lusirious, breezily soulful Nigel Wright Remixes, ponderously lurching Original".
References to other songs
The song contains apparent references to at least three other songs:
The line "Ain't nothing goin' on now, but the rent-uh" appears in the 1972 James Brown hit "Get on the Good Foot — Pt. 1".
The line "You got to have a J-O-B if you want to be-with-me" is set to a melody line that recurs throughout "Doctor Love", a 1977 disco hit by First Choice.
The line "Nothing from nothing leaves nothing" is taken from Billy Preston's 1974 hit song of the same name.
Covers and pop culture references
- This song, specifically the line, "what can you do for me?" was sampled by Utah Saints in their 1991 UK top ten hit, "What Can You Do For Me".
- The song has been referenced numerous times in popular culture, including songs with similar messages, such as Destiny's Child's "Bills, Bills, Bills". The last stanza of Blackstreet's song "No Diggity" uses the title line.
- Rapper Foxy Brown released a cover version of the song, titled "JOB", which also featured Mýa.
- It appeared on Brown's 1999 album Chyna Doll.
- Comedian Eddie Murphy cited the song's title and lyrics in his 1987 stand-up comedy movie Raw as reflective of the materialism of American women at the time.
- In the 1994 film House Party 3, Reynaldo Rey used the lyric: "No romance without finance" to convey to Kid, how the lack of employment was a deal breaker.
- In the comedy series Martin, "Ain't Nuttin' Goin' on But the Rent" was the name of Episode 16 of Season 3 in 1995 where Martin refused to pay a 5% rent increase to his landlord.
- The song was also used in the 8th episode of season 5 of RuPaul's Drag Race, when contestants Alyssa Edwards and Ivy Winters had to lip sync to it to avoid elimination.
See also
