(Originally written for the 2024 MarchXNess Tournament. “March Danceness: ’00s”. I wound up making it to the Sweet 16 this year.)
In his 2004 HBO Special Never Scared, Chris Rock gave us the quote, “If the beat’s all right, she’ll dance all night.” It was a central part of a routine about extremely filthy and misogynistic lyrics in rap music, and how tired Chris was of defending the merits of rap music from its detractors.
A song, though, that should not need defending in this manner is 2003’s “In da Club” by 50 Cent. Thumping bass, hand claps, funky horns and a chugging understated guitar riff propel this song about 50 being on the come up, and his plans for future fame and fortune.
It was the lead single from Get Rich or Die Tryin’. Dr. Dre’s production shone through, and the track helped propel the album to being certified as platinum nine times in the United States. “In da Club” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks. Objectively, it is one of the biggest, hottest tracks of all time.
When 50 Cent performed the song at the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show in 2022, hanging upside down for his entrance, the pop from the crowd was ridiculous (even if 50 admitted later that he thought it was a mistake).
Funnily, the song about poppin’ bottles full of bub and sippin’ Bacardi is now old enough to drink itself, having celebrated its release birthday in January of this year. I was not that much older when this song came out.
I was living in Southeast Michigan at the time. Working my first full-time job at Eastern Michigan University. In a long-distance relationship with my now wife, but essentially living a quasi-single life. Which involved (on weekends when I was not on duty as a hall director) going out from time to time. And I remember the first time I heard this song, and my mind was blown by what I was hearing. “OH! This is different.”
Around the time that this song came out, I had just bought a new car. A red 1999 Pontiac Sunfire that had a sunroof. It was sporty and zippy, and I felt kind of cool driving around town with it. The best part was it had a decent little built-in sound system, for the size of the car, that had a built-in CD player.
I felt like a baller.
We were still in peak Napster/Limewire era, so you know I was, ahem, “acquiring” music and burning songs onto CDs. However, I “acquired” a copy of Get Rich or Die Tryin’ in the traditional manner and took great pleasure in driving around Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor with the sunroof open and the windows down (when the weather permitted) bumping “In da Club” alone. Or throwing it onto a mix CD and popping that mix in when I was tooling around town running errands in my car or with my friend Heather.
Whether out at the club, at a wedding, or sitting at a stoplight, this song makes you want to groove. Makes you want to move. And while the lyrics to reference bisexual women and Ecstasy pills, it’s not talking about, as Chris Rock was joking about in his bit, “Smack her with a dick, smack her with a dick.”
It’s not THAT dirty.
But the beat is all right.
And when “In da Club” comes on, you can best believe folks will dance all night.
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