Rump Shaker

Album: Hard Or Smooth (1992)
Charted: 24 2
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Songfacts®:

  • The lyrics are full of clever sexual innuendo in praise of women with nice butts. Part of the first wave of booty tracks, it took Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" a step further, with even more suggestive lyrics and a racier video.
  • That silky saxophone is sampled from a 1974 song called "Darkest Light" by the Lafayette Afro-Rock Band. The sax is clean on the intro to "Darkest Light," which makes it prime pickings for a sample. Public Enemy used it four years earlier on their track "Show 'Em Whatcha Got," and Jay-Z used it in 2006 on "Show Me What You Got."
  • The "I like the way you comb your hair" lyrics section is lifted from a song called "I Like It" by DeBarge, which made #31 US in 1983. The DeBarge lyrics are:

    I like the way you comb your hair
    I like those stylish clothes you wear
    It's just those little things you do
    That show how much you really care


    Nelly used this bit on his 2000 hit "Ride Wit Me." In both cases, the three members of DeBarge who wrote "I Like It" were given composer credits, earning very nice paydays.
  • Ten different writers are credited on this track:

    Aqil Davidson
    Anton Hollins
    David Porter
    Markell Riley
    Teddy Riley
    Pharrell Williams
    David Wynn

    Etterlene Jordan (Bunny DeBarge)
    El DeBarge
    Randy DeBarge
    (these last three for the "I Like It" sample)

    It was the first hit song Pharrell Williams worked on; he was doing some work with Teddy Riley, who was an established producer and was working with Wreckx-N-Effect (his brother Markell was in the group). As part of The Neptunes, Williams went on to stardom, creating beats for Nelly, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani and many others.
  • Wreckx-N-Effect were down to a duo when they recorded this song: Aqil "A-Plus" Davidson and Markell "Miggady-Mark" Riley.

    The group (spelled Wrecks-N-Effect) was a foursome when they started in the late '80s, and their first album was released on Motown Records in 1989. They split with the label soon after, and by the time their next album, Hard or Smooth, was released, original member Brandon Mitchell had been shot and killed, and Keith KC had left the group.

    They were produced by Markell's brother Teddy Riley, who also makes an appearance on this track ("It's Teddy, ready with the 1, 2, checka..."). Riley, a rising star in hip-hop, had a #1 hit to his credit with "I Like The Way (The Kissing Game)," which he co-wrote and co-produced for the group Hi-Five.

    Wreckx-N-Effect made just one more appearance on the Hot 100: "Knock-N-Boots," which reached #72 in 1993.
  • M.I.A. used part of the gibberish chorus ("All I wanna do is zooma zoom zoom and a poom poom") for her 2007 track "Hit That."
  • With the phrase "Rump Shaker" in the collective conscious, an adult film with that title was released in 1993. Set in a nightclub with very compliant dancers, the film generated four sequels.

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