This Is How We Do It – Montell Jordan | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning

Chart Performance: Pop (#1 for 7 weeks) & R&B (#1); 1995

Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne

Montell Jordan’s first chart single was a monster as it dominated both the R&B and pop charts for seven weeks. The story of This Is How We Do It stretches back to Montell’s days at Pepperdine University where he partied to Slick Rick’s Children’s Story (#5 R&B; 1989). By then Montell knew he wanted to make music his career, so he began to experiment with singing over Slick Rick’s track. A full none months passed before Montell felt he had something worthy of the original. Extending the party atmosphere into the studio, Montell brought in 30 or so people for the recording session, and directed them to, well, just enjoy themselves. Montell himself was uneasy in the unfamiliar studio setting since he was basically “learning on the job” for his all-important debut album. When the time came to pick the first single release, the choice came down to Somethin’ 4 Da Honeyz or This Is How We Do It, and, as we all know, This Is How showed ’em how to do it.

This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2023 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.

Produced by:

• Montell Jordan
• Oji Pierce

Lyrics Written by:

• Montell Jordan
• Oji Pierce
• Ricky Walters

Awards:

• “This Is How We Do It” earned Montell Jordan a Grammy Award nomination for “Best Male R&B Vocal Performance” at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards 1996