Track Listing

1. Fill Me In
2. Can't Be Messing 'Round
3. Rendezvous
4. 7 Days
5. Follow Me
6. Key to My Heart
7. Last Night
8. Walking Away
9. Time To Party
10. Booty Man
11. Once In A Lifetime
12. You Know What
13. Rewind

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29934 in Music
• Brand: Craig
• Released on: 2001-07-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com
After laying down a memorable vocal on Artful Dodger's "Re-Wind," the biggest hit to date of the latest U.K.-spawned dance craze known as two-step, Craig David's debut record carries lofty expectations. Born out of the R&B/hip-hop and U.K. garage styles of artists like Romanthony, MJ Cole, and Timbaland, with dashes of spastic drum & bass-style rhythms and DJ scratches, two-step is waiting for its first major breakthrough. On his debut full-length, Born to Do It, it's immediately obvious that this breakthrough won't be supplied by David, only because his style isn't really proper two-step at all. His smooth tenor and hip-hop-oriented, verse-chorus-verse song structures are much more in line with the urban soul and new jack swing sound of artists like R. Kelly, Sisqo, and D'Angelo. Still, for an artist who just turned 20, this is an incredibly assured record with a sweet, romantic core that only a cold cynic could deride as youthful naiveté. In addition, while only occasionally hinting at the darker passions of true two-step, the record drips with an advanced rhythmic sense that manifests itself everywhere, from the clever wordplay in the lyrics of songs like "Fill Me In" and "7 Days" to the bells-and-whistles production on the giddy "Time to Party." For those after a true introduction to two-step, there are better choices (start with MJ Cole's Sincere, the Vital 2Step collection, or just jump a plane to London and go club-hopping), but still enjoy this record for its boyish pleasures, teasing sexuality, and irresistible grooves. --Matthew Cooke

Customer Reviews

Born To Do It..yeah!
Craig David is probably one of the finest artists they have in U.K...Born To Do It, his first album, won't certainly disappoint r&b fans..His music tackles more on relationships, parties,sex and uh, himself..(I read an article about Mel B commenting on his "Born To Do It"..She said that he always mentioned "Craig David, Craig David" on the album..He was self-centered alright, but his music counts)

So here are my fave tracks

1) Fill Me In- This is one of his nicest hits..It starts with a cool guitar playing and moves to a groovy beat.

3) Rendezvous- Sort of a slow jam..I love the chorus! Really cool track

4) Seven Days- The guitar playing is awesome..Great tune, interesting lyrics

5) Follow me- This is my fave love tune on the album

7) Walking Away- Wow, his vocal chords was impressive here.. Nice song about not minding the past and have to go on.. The track was kind of short though. (Barely 4 minutes!)

8) Time To Party- Good arrangement of the keyboards and the beat

12) Rewind- My fave track! Although at first, I can't understand the chorus, like, Ree-wind when the crowd say bo, selecta(?)...The Artful Dodger- Craig David team is a masterpiece.

born to do it right
Never before have I been a fan of R&B. For some reason I've never been able to get into that genre, but Born To Do It is essential in anyone's collection, whether they think so or not. It's strange actually because the first time I saw the video on MTV for Fill Me In (the first single) I didn't like it. Then I saw CNN's Worldbeat do a segment on his unique sound and still I refused to pay any heed. Than one day I was skimming through the Virgin Megastore by my house and gave in to listening to it. Fill Me In came on first and I stood there expecting to move away at any moment, but lo and behold! the song just struck me confounded. I suddenly felt like moving my body to the infectous grooves. Than I skipped it to track two, Can't Be Messing Round, and found myself liking that even more. So by the time I reached track three, Rendezvous, and officially my favorite song, 7 Days, I took the headphones off and immediately bought it. Now I'm forever grateful for giving Craig David a second chance. I think the UK's idea of 2-Step-Garage is ingenious. Craig David fuses this sound with traditional R&B of course, but the song Rewind is a perfect example of this style with the constant intervening of drum 'n bass. If you like this concept than you should also check out these other bands which delve further into this sound rather than just sampling. Wookie and Artful Dodgers are prime sources for this new, refreshing sound. If only all R&B could sound even remotely as good as this. It would make a fan of me yet!

Other favorites include Walking Away, Time To Party, Booty Man, Once In A Lifetime, and, well.... I'm pretty much naming all the songs here so...

BUY IT!

Thank you.

Fattt Beats, Smooth Vibe, Quite Literate
I'm officially on the train. I can't get this damn thing out of my mind. I wish I had it this together when I was 20.

The man's vocal talents are obvious; he can swing, sing, rap, and flow with considerable ease. What matters at the end of the day, of course, are the songs. On this score, CD gets an 8.5 out of 10 in my book.

Craig David already gets Kudos for simply being intelligent enough to recognize that good songwriting is the foundation of the house; his efforts in developing his skills in this area are quite manifest, and it is a beautiful thing to see somebody hungrily training and developing his talent.

Then it becomes a matter of execution. The production team on this effort has done a terrific job.

The best debut in years, and certainly the best R&B debut since Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite.