“Yeah!” by Usher ft. Lil Jon, Ludacris

One of the biggest party anthems of the 21st century.

It's the end of the week, and I want to send everyone off into the weekend with the best vibes possible. That’s why the Daily Music Picks newsletter features a weekly segment called Fun Song Fridays! Regardless of era, genre, or style, the criterion is simple: it must deliver the joy and excitement we all need in our lives.

You can access the entire Fun Song Fridays archive here. While you’re at it, add the companion playlist to your favorite streaming platform.

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Hello! 😊👋

Welcome to a new edition of the Best Music of All Time newsletter!

Today’s music pick is easily one of the most infectious party anthems of the 21st century, a snapshot of R&B at its crunkest.

Genre: R&B, Crunk

Label: Arista

Release Date: January 10, 2004

Vibe: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

The dictionary (remember those?) defines “crunk” as “a style of Southern rap music featuring repetitive chants and rapid dance rhythms.” But, if you wanted a more efficient description, you could boil crunk’s musical essence down to two words: Lil Jon.

The Atlanta-born multihyphenate is mainly responsible for crunk’s mainstream breakthrough and establishing a sonic template that dominated dancefloors for more than half a decade. Heavily influenced by Miami bass (for a well-known in-point, check out 2 Live Crew’s biggest hits), crunk is all about the bass-heavy 808s, the rolling synth ostinatos, and the, shall we say, assertive call-and-response vocals. Hits like “Salt Shaker,” “Get Low,” and “Goodies” all illustrate now just how goofily catch crunk was at its peak, but also how strong Lil Jon’s instincts were when it came to creating beats that absolutely popped off.

The latter skill saved “Yeah!,” Usher’s smash hit from relative obscurity. It’s inconceivable how close it was to suffering that fate, seeing as it’s gone on to be certified 13x Platinum, the biggest Hot 100 single of 2004, and has garnered over 1 billion YouTube views. The song’s parent album, Confessions, was already in the can when Arista’s president at the time, L.A. Reid, told the R&B singer the tracks lacked one they could push as a lead single. Lil Jon was brought in to help create “that first powerful monster” (his words). The only problem was that the beat he planned to submit had already been given to Petey Pablo without Lil Jon’s knowledge. That error eventually gave Pablo a decent-sized hit with “Freek-a-leek.” Scrambling, the producer threw a new instrumental together and, in a sly bit of marketing, leaked the finished record to DJs nationwide during the Christmas break.

Needless to say, the reaction foreshadowed the incredible response to the song, which became an all-time R&B party anthem. From those opening horn blasts to Lil Jon’s trademark, top-of-his-voice exclamations, there’s not a nanosecond of this track that isn’t fun. It’s one of the pop hits that never fails to get me (or most millennials my age) up out of their chairs. Essentially, it’s the kind of song this column was made for.

👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈