The story behind Naughty by Nature’s ‘Hip Hop Hooray’
Naughty by Nature, the classic hip-hop trio from New Jersey, had already found success by the early 1990s, having released two albums and scoring a few hit singles along the way. But it was only with the release of album number three, 19 Naughty III, and its lead single ‘Hip Hop Hooray’, that they truly secured their legendary status.
‘Hip Hop Hooray’ reached number one on the Billboard hip-hop charts following its release in late 1992, while it even got to number eight on the wider pop charts in America. Yet its true stature would only be revealed in the years and decades to come, when, gradually, its longevity became clear. It remains an extremely popular track today, more than three decades since it first dropped.
The song was built upon samples of a number of classic tracks. Most notably, there’s James Brown’s ‘Funky President’ and Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’, but there’s also ‘Make Me Say it Again Girl’ by the Isley Brothers and ‘You Can’t Turn Me Away’ by Sylvia Striplin in there, too. Those elements combine to create a track that is distinctly its own, while being firmly sonically rooted in its early ’90s era.
Lyrically, as the title suggests, the track is about hip-hop itself, with the rappers taking the opportunity to celebrate their love for the genre: “I live and die for hip-hop, this is hip-hop for today / I give props to hip-hop, so hip-hop hooray.” They also proclaim their love of the opposite sex: “I love Black women always and disrespect ain’t the way / Let’s start a family today; hip-hop hooray.”
Speaking about the background of the song for an explainer video created for Vevo, group member KayGee proclaimed, “We like to call it our unofficial hip-hop anthem.” His bandmate Vin Rock elaborated on that idea, saying, “‘Hip Hop Hooray’ sums up what hip-hop culture is: a celebration of the inner city’s ability to endure and create one of the largest music and art cultures in the world. It’s the epitome of crowd participation and togetherness. Once people hear it, they immediately throw their hands in the air, wave and sing in unison. It’s a song that will live forever.”
The track is more than 30 years old now, and its popularity has not yet wavered, so Vin’s prediction that it would “live forever” seems prescient. That must have something to do with the call-and-response character of the chorus, which makes it so engaging for listeners of any era.
“I knew the ‘hey ho’ chorus would connect to the East Coast partygoers,” Vin Rock noted, “because it was a popular saying at parties, roller rinks, et cetera. Once we incorporated it into the beat KayGee provided, I definitely felt confident it would be well received.”
The song’s music video is also notable, both because of all the cameos it features and because of the man who directed it. The promo was helmed by none other than legendary director Spike Lee, who also showed up as one of the multiple cameos from famous faces. Shot in Brooklyn, the clip also sees Queen Latifah, Eazy-E, Run-DMC and even Tupac Shakur show up, in addition to several others. It’s quite the time capsule of the era’s hip-hop stars.
“Director Spike Lee was super professional,” Vin Rock said of the promo. “[He] had multiple setups ready for us, and he even pulled KayGee out of bed to get started because he didn’t want to be late for his Knicks game!” Of the cameos, he also noted, “The cameo appearances were awesome, especially Eazy-E from NWA. He was resetting his career after parting ways with Dr Dre. So Eazy spent a lot of time on the East Coast as well. KayGee and Treach wrote and produced a few songs for Eazy.”
All in all, all the ingredients were there for ‘Hip Hop Hooray’ to be a smash, and it duly became just that. It is now considered to be one of hip-hop’s great songs, a true celebration of its earlier days.