‘Jiggle Jiggle’: the story behind Louis Theroux’s awkward rap hit
When Eminem first emerged on the rap scene in the 1990s, he took a lot of heat for being white.
But at least he had the skills as an MC to back himself up, not to mention his working-class background and proximity to African-American culture. Louis Theroux, on the other hand, can’t lean on any of that.
Still, the London-raised, privately educated documentarian has unexpectedly emerged as a hip hop figure of sorts over the years. He is authentically a big rap fan, but he’s also a practitioner with an actual single release under his belt, in the form of ‘Jiggle Jiggle’m which is every bit as awkward to listen to as one might expect.
Theroux’s rap career, such as it is, can be traced as far back as 2000, when he was making an episode of his show Weird Weekends. He was in New Orleans for the episode to interview local rappers, but one thing led to another, and he soon found himself rapping on a local hip hop radio station.
Theroux’s performance was funny and quite painful, and it made for good TV. That should have been that, but two decades or so later, in the age of the meme, his rapping reemerged online, and people became excited by it. In 2022, Theroux was interviewed by Amelia Dimoldenberg on her Chicken Shop Date YouTube series, and the rapping came up. He did a little performance, and it really caught on. A DJ duo called Duke and Jones decided to remix his rapping and post it to TikTok, where it took on a life of its own.
On TikTok, ‘Jiggle Jiggle’ sparked a viral dance craze and featured in literally millions of videos on the platform. Famous figures like Snoop Dogg and Rita Ora jumped onto the trend, too, with the song actually going on to be released as an actual single.
‘Jiggle Jiggle’ is a braggadocious number, featuring Theroux boasting of his riches. “My money don’t jiggle, jiggle, it folds,” he raps in his awkward way, “I like to see you wiggle, wiggle, for sure / It makes me want to dribble, dribble, you know / Riding in my Fiat, you really have to see it”.
There’s a section of the track in which Theroux interpolates the song ‘Red Red Wine’, written and performed initially by Neil Diamond, but known more, arguably, for UB40’s 1983 cover. “I got a knack to relax in my mind,” Theroux spits, “Sipping some red, red wine”.
The song did really well after it was released, was certified gold in the US, and has been viewed millions of times on YouTube since it was uploaded. A remix was also put out, featuring Jason Derulo and Amelia Dimoldenberg under the name Amelia Dimz, while Chris Martin covered it during a Coldplay gig in Wembley Stadium. The song was, authentically, a cultural phenomenon.