It’s no secret that Fats Joe’s “Lean Again” dance transfer was closely influenced by Jamaican dancehall tradition.
Fats Joe shed some gentle on considered one of his greatest hit tune and the well-known dance on the 2022 BET Hip Hop Awards final week. The NY rapper defined that when he was making the observe, Jamaican music was on the ascendancy in New York. It was the vibe of this music, which most probably would have been dancehall, that obtained him considering that he wanted a observe “to rockaway, lean again,” to.
Whereas creating the observe, he determined that he ought to make a dance for it, and it was then that he knew he had a observe that will go the space. “We knew off rip, that factor was outta right here. Every so often you make a tune that’s like, ‘Oh no, that is gone. That is outta right here.’ Yeah that was it,” Fats Joe informed Hiphopdx.
The observe, which options Fats Joe with Remy Ma on the second verse, went on to high the US Billboard Sizzling 100 for 3 weeks, beginning on August 21, 2004. It additionally topped the Billboard Sizzling R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart for seven weeks.
Globally the tune was very profitable for the Terror Squad chief reaching the highest 20 in a number of markets, together with peaking at No. 5 in Denmark. It stays considered one of Fats Joe’s most profitable tracks thus far, because it was licensed gold within the US and silver within the UK. It additionally helped to take the Bronx native to locations that he didn’t beforehand envision as effectively.
Fats Joe touched on one factor that happened due to the favored tune, which he believes gave comedic rockstar Kevin Hart considered one of his huge breaks. Fats Joe reveals that whereas on set for his cameo in 2003’s Scary Film 3, he met Kevin Hart and located him hilarious. Hart was extra of an additional on the time, however his jokes stood out, Fats Joe remembers. That’s why he selected to forged him within the “Lean Again” video.
“Then like two weeks later, I shot ‘Lean Again’ and I known as him up. I stated, ‘Keep in mind the little humorous man? Let’s get him within the video.’ So he got here in ‘Lean Again’ and that was his first huge second. Scary Film made that each one occur,” he added.
The origin of the dance has been disputed although. Whereas Fats Joe stated the inspiration got here to him by means of inspiration, in response to author, radio host, and public speaker Bee Quammie it was she who gave him the direct inspiration for the dance again in December 2019.
She claimed that she snuck right into a Membership Mattress in Miami when she was underage, and as she was dancing in the course of the reggae set, Fats Joe requested her to show him the dance. Utilizing Twitter, she stated that the dance was known as the “Rockaway” and that Joe recorded “Lean Again” the next week.
A consumer requested her if she thought that the “All of the Approach Up” rapper owed her some money for the inspiration, to which she replied: “He owes Jamaica cash! I bear in mind this ’trigger I used to be a child and Jamaicans had been livid and I feel just a few artists made songs about it too.”
A 12 months later, in 2020, Elephant Man additionally stated that he was the creator of the Rockaway dance and that Fats Joe stole his strikes for the Lean Again. He made that declare on Magnum’s Spice It Up discuss present.
“Fats Joe come and take rockaway, him no know weh it come from,” he stated.
The directions for the Rockaway dance transfer featured prominently on Elephant Man’s 2003 launch “Blase.”
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