JuJu On Dat Beat (TZ Anthem)

Album: Single release only (2016)
Charted: 37 5
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Songfacts®:

  • Detroit-based rapper Zay Hilfigerrr and his friend Zayion McCall created this song in 2014, after they were inspired by the viral success of the Nae Nae. That dance was invented by the Atlanta hip hop group We Are Toonz on their 2013 hit song "Drop That NaeNae" and spread by amateur videos. The pair rap over the beat to Crime Mob's 2004 hit "Knuck If You Buck," and interpolate some of that song.
  • Hilfigerrr freestyled the song's lyrics centering around various dance moves performed in quick succession and choreographed its chorus, at the same time. "I didn't write nothing down," he told The Fader. "It was just randomly on the beat. I was just so excited."
  • The original version on McCall's YouTube went viral after the dance troupe Fresh the Clowns posted their #TZAnthemChallenge video. That led others to make their own clips, and the song rocketed up the chart as a result of the huge amount of user-generated videos it was generating. As a result of the dance craze blowing up, Hilfigerrr and McCall signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records and the song was released as "Juju on That Beat (TZ Anthem)" on September 30, 2016 by Tha Lights Global, Inc in agreement with Atlantic.
  • Hilfigerrr wrote on Genius:

    "JuJu is a dance I had created. Just like whip, just like nae nae, just like the electric slide. It's just something you said when you did the dance. When you JuJu, you just say, 'JuJu on tat beat.'

    It was just a slang I had made up, it wasn't no city thing, it was just something where we were playing around."

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