Flashback Friday: JoJo - Leave (Get out) | That time JoJo kicked deadbeats and wigs to the curb at the age of 13

With JoJo having released re-recorded versions of her first 2 albums, it makes sense for us to take a walk down memory lane back to where it all started. With JoJo's debut single "Leave (Get out)".

Those who have been checking out this blog for a while now probably have no idea that I like JoJo. Like...REALLY like the bitch. I bought her debut album back in 2004 off of the strength of "Leave (Get out)" alone. I would finish off that sentence with 'and I never looked back' but I did constantly. Many of JoJo's fans were forced to once she entered limbo and went years without releasing anything.

"Leave (Get out)" was released at a time when the coined 'man hating' songs were still all the rage on radio, 5 years on from when TLC first popularised such songs with "No scrubs" back in 1999. The most notable thing with each of these songs was that they weren't appended to a particular type of woman; which makes complete sense, because no 'type of woman' is exempt from ending up in a relationship where her man cheats. There was no reason to believe that TLC, Destiny's Child, Whitney and P!nk hadn't been in the types of relationships that they were singing about, because they were of ages where they could have been. And life has a funny way of imitating art. Because Whitney would go on to divorce her husband. P!nk would separate from hers. And Beyoncé would find out that hers had cheated. But then came JoJo at the age of 13, singing a song about things that we all damn well knew she hadn't yet experienced. But we stanned anyway. Because "Leave (Get out)" was a bop.

Most girls her age were singing decidedly different songs. Songs that were either ambiguously titillating, straight-up bubble gum or covers. But here was 13 year old JoJo with a song telling her man to get up out of her house because she caught texts to the side piece in his Nokia 8250.

Now, we all know 13 year old JoJo hadn't gone through a damn thing she was singing about. But that didn't matter because the song was stone cold bop and JoJo sang the absolute shit out of it. Plus, are we really gonna penalise and artist for singing a break-up song because they haven't experienced a break-up? What if we held actors to this same standard? The proof is in the execution and JoJo left me slayed like Buffy.

"Leave (Get out)" was an prime example of how a good song is a good song AND THAT IS ALL FOLKS. We can dissect it and dismiss that JoJo shouldn't have been singing it at her age. But that doesn't erase the fact that this was a great song and that JoJo still managed to make it work because she was always that bitch. JoJo being 13 years old and singing a song like this actually contributed to its broad appeal. 13 year olds loved it. But 18 year olds did too. So did folk in their 20s and 30s. Something which translated into its commercial success. Charting at number 12 on the Billboard hot 100, number 1 on the Billboard US Mainstream Top 40 and debuting at number 2 on the UK singles chart; marking the songwriters and producers behind it, Soulshock & Karlin's first song to see success on both sides of the Atlantic.

There's every chance most who got into this song via radio may have never seen JoJo and had no idea she was some 13 year old white girl from Massachusetts. They probably thought she was some 18 year old black girl.

"Leave (Get out)" has aged like a fine wine from a nice glass of grape soda (because homegirl could not drink at 13) much like JoJo herself. JoJo performing the song as a young woman with a bit more life experience and more vocal prowess gives it a whole new layer. It also shows that JoJo is not precious about trying to be seen a certain type of way. She's spoken of her disdain for "Leave (Get out)". But she still performs it, because she knows she'd be stupid not to, just for the sake of proving a point and being all 'It's not reflective of my tastes now'. But I truly believe that JoJo probably feels differently about the song now, given that she's able to relate to it more personally and that the success and longevity of the song plays its own part of why she's still here now. She is also at a point in her career where she can mould and change the texture of the song as she pleases, to align more with what she deems cool to her.

JoJo not acting like the song doesn't exist also acknowledges that she knows what the song means to her fans, because this was their (our?) introduction to her and it's one fans remember and hold dear. Every time JoJo does a gig and the opening guitar of "Leave (Get out)" kicks in, the audience go wild and they sing every damn word and even the ad-libs. And even for me, no matter how much time passes in-between when I hear the song, I still know all of the damn words and am ready to fight and kick a n***a out that I don't even have.

"Leave (Get out)" has managed to sustain a level of admiration and love from many for years. And rightly so. It's an amazing song and one which pretty much defined JoJo, for better or worse. So much so to the point that it's the song of hers that immediately comes to mind when you think of her.

But it's a shame that JoJo personally never saw the same success as the song. It's always felt as though the song took on a life of its own without her, which is strange considering that she sang it and everybody knows it. But JoJo re-recording the song and re-introducing it to the streaming generation should remind everybody that JoJo is still here and that her talents were a massive contributing factor to the song. Very few could sing it how she does and sell it the same way that she managed to at 13 years old, much less now.

A 13 year old girl was out-singing those twice her age back then. And JoJo stays out-singing her peers and keeping wigs off heads with a 17 year old song.