Back in the not-so-distant era of the late ’90s, Sisqo reigned supreme for one reason and one reason only: the “Thong Song.” Released at the tail end of 1999, the song racked up four Grammy nominations and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 — it was a huge hit, and completely dominated the airwaves for what felt like years but was probably just months. Now, the thing is back, revamped, remixed, and ready to roll in 2017.
“I’ve been asked so many times over the years to make a new version of ‘Thong Song’ and I have declined every time until I heard the new version that JCY did,” Sisqo told Buzzfeed, who premiered the video today. “I thought it was dope and figured maybe it was time to put some new rims on the Bugatti.”
Fans of the original version may remember there was a ubiquitous video as well, a white-haired Sisqo shaking his belly button tattoo and rock hard abs all over your screen in service to the glory of thongs. The fact that the clip starts with an all-too-embarrassing question from his daughter after finding a thong on the family’s hotel room floor only makes it that much better.
But now that it’s been almost twenty years there obviously needs to be a brand new video too. There are stilly plenty of thong-clad lovelies — though you’d have a really hard time arguing they have “dumps like a truck” or “thighs like what” — but they are frolicking on the beach and popping champagne. There’s still Sisqo, biting his lip over the tantalizing prospect of this sexy little piece of underwear, and additionally, there’s huge EDM drops and JCY attempting to live up to Sisqo’s dance skills in his hey day.
Interestingly enough, the moves might not be as slick this time around because of a bout of bad luck that hung over the filming:
“The only problem was that, in the days leading up to the shoot, everything that could go wrong, did,” Sisqo further told Buzzfeed. “We experienced a devastating loss in our team and we were all pretty emotional. On top of that, I’d just done a show on the complete opposite side of the country where I dislocated three ribs. The epitome of insult to injury was the couple of hours we had to learn brand new choreography for the video right before recording it where in most cases you get a week to learn a new routine. Even though I had to perform in the video injured, I think it turned out pretty good.”
The video and song do feel very 2017 for a song that came out eighteen years ago, and odds are, this will be played in plenty of clubs this summer, too. But will it reach the overwhelming saturation of the original? And have we finally reached a peak with this kind of nostalgia? Guess we’ll have to wait and see. Let’s not forget about the alternate version with Foxy Brown though, that still reigns supreme over either of these.
