Tags
#2 single, 1990s, Hard or Smooth, Hip Hop, I Will Always Love You, lead single, Music, One Hit Wonder, Pharrell Williams, R&B, Rump Shaker, saxophone, sophomore album, Teddy Riley, Wreckx-N-Effect
Rump Shaker (MCA, 1992)
Rump Shaker is a song by American hip-hop group Wreckx-N-Effect. It was released in August 1992 as the lead single from their second album Hard or Smooth. It features production and guest vocals from Teddy Riley, brother of Wreckx member Markell Riley.
Due to the massive success of Whitney Houston’s version of I Will Always Love You, the song did not advance further than #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks charts. Nevertheless, it peaked at #1 on the Hot Rap Singles, and #9 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts.
The chorus of the 2008 single, Paper Planes by British musician M.I.A. was widely speculated to be based on the chorus, although the song’s writers are not credited.
Rump Shaker is built on a saxophone sample from the 1972 song Darkest Light by Lafayette Afro Rock Band and a drum sample from Midnight Theme by Manzel. Other samples include Scratchin‘ by the Magic Disco Machine and Blues and Pants by James Brown (the vocal “come on!”). Riley’s Rump Shaker (Teddy 2) remix adds a bass and piano sample from Blind Alley by The Emotions as well as a vocal sample from Stop, Look, Listen by MC Lyte. Additionally, Teddy Riley’s verse includes an allusion to the 1982 song I Like It by DeBarge, with the lines, “I like the way you comb your hair, I like the stylish clothes you wear, it’s just the little things you do…”.
The song opens with Teddy Riley chanting the chorus “All I wanna do is zoom-zoom-zoom-zoom and a boom-boom.” Subsequent verses are rapped by Aqil Davidson, Teddy Riley, and Markell Riley. Teddy Riley’s verse is notable for being written by his young protégé Pharrell Williams, later to achieve fame as a member of The Neptunes and a solo artist. It was rumored that Pharrell, along with fellow future-Neptune Chad Hugo, contributed additional production work, but producer Ty Fyffe stated in a 2011 interview that he and Teddy Riley alone produced the song and that Pharrell’s only contribution was lyrical.