Back to My Roots

Back to My Roots was the fourth single (and second major label single) released by singer and drag queen RuPaul from the album Supermodel of the World. Although the single failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, it reached #1 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart in July of 1993 and helped to further establish RuPaul's popularity, particularly with both the dance music and LGBT audiences in the United States.

The house/dance track is a tribute to black women's hairstyles as well as to the tradition of community often found in urban hair salons. Within the song RuPaul name-checks a variety of hairstyle such as braids, hair extensions, afro-puffs and cornrows. She also names several of her relatives including her mother Ernestine Charles, who at the time owned a hair salon in Atlanta, Georgia.

The single was released primarily as a CD but with various 12" versions. It also featured a new remix of the hit single Supermodel (You Better Work), as well as a pastiche of the track called "Strudelmodel" which changed the theme of the original to a "model for der veinerschnitzel corporation".

An accompanying video showcased extreme drag-versions of all of these hairstyles. Though it was played occasionally on MTV it received far more play in dance clubs.