"Get Low" is a song by American rap group Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, featuring American hip hop duo Ying Yang Twins, released as a single in 2003. It first appeared on the 2002 album Kings of Crunk. The song reached number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 20 on the US Hot Digital Songs. It was number five on the top Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs of 2003.
Outside of the United States, "Get Low" peaked within the top ten of the charts in the United Kingdom, the top twenty of the charts in Germany and the top forty of the charts in Australia, Austria and New Zealand. It is also known as a breakthrough single for the crunk genre, as the song's success helped it become mainstream. It is listed number 99 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip-Hop.[1]
History
Three different radio edits of "Get Low" have been released. One had amended lyrics (i.e. "take that thang to the floor, you skank, you skank"), while the other two bleeped out certain profanities. Of the two bleep censored versions, one version left the word "goddamn" intact while the other censored the word.
The song is referenced by rock band Vampire Weekend in their song "Oxford Comma" from their 2008 self-titled album, proclaiming "First the window, then it's to the wall/ Lil' Jon, he always tells the truth." Comedian Chris Rock also referenced the song in a sketch about rap music in his special Never Scared, stating that it was currently his favorite, but due to the song's lyrics, "We all should be ashamed of ourselves for liking this freaking song!"
The Ying Yang Twins used their lines from the song later in their song "Hanh!" from the album Me & My Brother, and in the remix of Pitbull's song "Bojangles". In addition, the line "bend over to the front and touch your toes" was reused in Usher's 2004 song "Yeah!", on which Lil Jon and Ludacris provided the rap vocals.
A version of the song, highly edited due to its subject matter and use of profanity, was featured on the Need for Speed: Underground soundtrack. A less-edited version was featured 9 years later on the Kinect game Dance Central 3. This song was also a playable track in the video game Def Jam Rapstar. The uncensored version appears in the Xbox 360 video game "Def Jam: Icon". Lil Jon (without the East Side Boyz) appears in the video game as a playable character providing his own voice and likeness.