"I Shouldn't Have Done It" is the first single released from

Slick Rick Richard Martin Lloyd Walters (born January 14, 1965), better known as Slick Rick, is an English-American rapper and record producer. He rose to prominence as part of Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew in the mid-1980s. His songs " The Show" and ...

's second album, '' The Ruler's Back''. It was released on June 6, 1991, by

Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The l ...

with production from Vance Wright and lyrics written by Slick Rick. It would be the most successful single from the album, being the only one of five singles to make it to the

Billboard charts The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ' ...

. It reached number fifty on the

Hot R&B Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 po ...

chart and number two on the

Hot Rap Singles Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by ''Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio statio ...

chart. The music video was very low-budget and mostly involved close-ups of Slick Rick rapping and others dancing. A goof occurs in the video when a female dancer's earring falls off, but she carries on. The single was used in the soundtrack for the motion picture Livin' Large!, and clips from the film was used in the music video for the song.

Track listing

A-side

#"I Shouldn't Have Done It" (Extended Mix)- 4:05 #"I Shouldn't Have Done It" (Radio Edit)- 3:08

B-side

#"I Shouldn't Have Done It" (Instrumental)- 4:06 #"I Shouldn't Have Done It" (A Cappella)- 3:08

Charts

Weekly charts

References

1991 singles 1991 songs Slick Rick songs Def Jam Recordings singles Songs written by Slick Rick {{1990s-hiphop-song-stub