Gotta leave that 9 to 5 up on the shelf…and just enjoy yourself-Rod Temperton

Look, life is stressful. Sometimes, just to maintain your sanity, you’ve got to cut loose. What’s that they say about all work and no play? Johnny Kemp perfectly captured the point in time when you can leave the stress of the work week behind and take it easy with his 1988 hit “Just Got Paid”. Written by Kemp along with super-producer Teddy Riley, Guy singer Aaron Hall and (allegedly) Gene Griffin (Guy’s original manager and the reported proto-Suge Knight), the song hit the top ten on the pop charts and scored Kemp’s only #1 on the R&B charts. It was also one of the first major pop hits to have a sound that could legitimately called “new jack swing”, following on the heels of Keith Sweat’s “I Want Her” (which Riley was also behind).

Unfortunately, the song was so defining that Kemp wound up being something of a one–hit wonder. He’d had a minor R&B hit before (“Just Another Lover”) and one minor pop hit after (“Birthday Suit”), but nothing could’ve come close to comparing to “Just Got Paid”. *Nsync revived the song in 2000 on their No Strings Attached album (a cover that probably made all of the songwriters some serious coin), but although their version was solid, it was no comparison to the original (especially since I don’t think most of the members of that group knew what it was like to clock out at 5:00 on a Friday). I think lots of us could use a reason to smile today. Hopefully this song and video can serve that purpose.