Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check

"Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check" is Busta Rhymes' first solo single and was released in 1996 from his solo debut album The Coming. It peaked at #8 in the U.S. on April 20, 1996 and #2 in the UK. In the U.S., the song was released as a double A-side single with "Everything Remains Raw".

The song's instrumental contains a sample from "Space" by Galt MacDermot. The punch line for the song is a reference to Big Bank Hank's punch line in the 1981 Sugarhill Gang release "8th Wonder": "See it's up my back, it's around my neck / Woo-hah! Got them all in check." Rapper Rampage features for a short pre-verse introduction.

Busta Rhymes indicates that, once he was offered to do his first solo album, he spent close to seven months with writer's block. At the time, he was seriously concerned because of the financial commitments that were in place to have the album issued, and with having nothing to deliver. He claims to have been playing a round of basketball when, suddenly, he juxtaposed the line from "8th Wonder" in his mind with a shouted "Woo Hah!" he heard around him. All of a sudden, he says, he felt like a gate was opening in his mind. By the end of the day he had written three songs for the album (including "Woo Hah!"), and had the entire album written over a weekend. He describes his mental block in "Woo Hah!", in the deadpanned rhetorical question: "Yo! Which motherfucker stole my flow?"

In 1996, It was nominated Best Rap Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards,^[1] but lost to Coolio for Gangsta's Paradise.

In 2008, It was ranked number 56 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.^[2]

The song was selected as one of many songs you must hear & download in the musical reference book, 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die: And 10,001 You Must Download

Music video

The single's video (directed by Hype Williams) is shot entirely through a fisheye lens, with some parts being shot in slow motion so the end result appears sped up, something that became Rhymes' trademark in later videos. The video opens with the song "Everything Remains Raw" and Busta rapping in a car while driving through New York. The video is also highly-acclaimed by many hip-hop fans as one of the most creative rap videos of all time.

Remixes

The official remix of the song is called, "Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check (The Worldwide Remix)", and features the late rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member Ol' Dirty Bastard and the video for that is shot in a padded room located in the hotel, Jib - Jab.

Track listing

Charts

References