Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Retro Video of the Week: "Tootsee Roll" by 69 Boyz

Friday will mark the 30th anniversary of Miami hip hop group 69 Boyz's (I think that's how the possessive of that would work) debut album, 199Quad.  The album would peak at #59 on the Billboard album chart and #13 on the Billboard R&B album chart, and it eventually went platinum in the U.S., behind the success of their hit single, the now-classic "Tootsee Roll."

The Tootsee Roll was a dance, presumably created collaboratively by all 69 of the boyz, and the song basically tells you how to do it.  This was definitely one of those songs that was playing at high school dances and frat parties back in the mid to late '90s.  It spent four months in the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching #8, and it was also #1 on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart and #9 on the Billboard Hot R&B singles chart.  If they left us with nothing else, any time you hear someone say "to the left," you're probably thinking in your head "to the right, to the right, to the front, to the front, to the back, to the back, now dip, baby, dip." Or at least you will now.

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