Harlem Shake (song)

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This article is about the song. For the meme using the same song, see Harlem Shake (meme). For the dance, see Harlem shake (dance).

"Harlem Shake"
trap
  • electropop[1]
    • Length3:16
    Label
    Songwriter(s)
    [2]
    Producer(s)Baauer
    Baauer singles chronology
    "Harlem Shake"
    (2012)     		"
    Dum Dum
    "
    (2012)
    Audio video
    "Harlem Shake" on
    YouTube

    "Harlem Shake" is a song recorded by American DJ and producer

    Dutch house synth riffs, a dance music drop, and samples of growling-lion sounds. It also samples Plastic Little's 2001 song "Miller Time", specifically the vocal "then do the Harlem shake", which is an allusion to the dance of the same name
    . Baauer added a variety of peculiar sounds to the song so that it would stand out.

    The single did not begin to sell significantly until February 2013, when a YouTube video set to its music developed into an Internet meme of the same name. The media response to the meme helped increase the single's sales, as it charted at number one for five consecutive weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also reached number three in the United Kingdom and number one in both Australia and New Zealand. During the song's chart run, Billboard enacted a policy that included video streams as a component of their charts.

    "Harlem Shake" was well received by

    contractually cleared before its release. However, according to Baauer, he has not received any of the money the song made because of the legal issues from not having properly cleared the samples. American rapper Azealia Banks released a remix to "Harlem Shake" on her SoundCloud
    page, which was subsequently removed at Baauer's request and led to a dispute between the two.

    Background

    Baauer (right) in 2012

    In 2011,

    imprint label Jeffree's.[6] It was Baauer's debut single.[7]

    Music and lyrics

    "Harlem Shake"
    A 19-second sample of the song
    Problems playing this file? See media help.

    "Harlem Shake" features harsh

    trap, a musical subgenre with stylistic origins in EDM and Southern hip hop,[9] featuring Roland TR-808 beats and drops.[10] Ryce felt the song's music "represents the hip-hop contingent of" bass music, which is typified by rolling snares and jerky basslines, finding it "particularly symptomatic of a growing strain of music obsessed with 'trap'".[8] By contrast, Jon Caramanica from The New York Times argued that it "isn't a hip-hop song, but it is hip-hop-influenced."[11]

    "Harlem Shake" begins with a sample of a voice shouting "con los terroristas", a Spanish phrase which translates to "with the terrorists" in English.

    Héctor Delgado, who often used the line as a refrain on his other songs. In 2010, the recorded phrase was used by Philadelphia DJs Skinny Friedman and DJ Apt One, on a remix of Gregor Salto's dance track "Con Alegría". Baauer said he found the vocal sample from an unidentified source on the Internet.[13] The sampled voice is followed by building synths and snares, and a syncopated sub-bass sound before another voice commands listeners to "do the Harlem shake".[4] The line was sampled from Plastic Little's 2001 hip hop song "Miller Time",[5] which Baauer sampled after having a friend play it for him and "[getting it] stuck in my head for a while".[3] Plastic Little member Jayson Musson said his line was inspired by a fist-fight that he ended by performing the harlem shake dance move: "This was my first fight and I didn’t know how to properly 'end' a fight, so I just smiled at him and did the Harlem shake, blood gushing from glass cuts on my face. The other kid, I guess not wanting to fight anymore, or maybe not wanting to fight someone who just danced at him, got on his skateboard and took off without his shoes."[5]

    Commercial performance

    See also: Harlem Shake (meme)
    Screenshots from one of numerous videos from the Harlem Shake meme, which skyrocketed the song's sales and streams[14]

    "Harlem Shake" was released commercially in June 2012.

    MSN Money, they earned $6 for every 1,000 views of the video.[22]

    The late-week media response to the meme helped the single sell 12,000 units on iTunes in the week ending February 10, according to

    UK Singles Chart during the week of the meme's phenomena. By the end of the chart week, the single had climbed nineteen spots to number three. Martin Talbot, the Official Charts Company's managing director, said that the single's climb on the chart "underlines just how quickly this track has turned into a bone fide phenomenon. At the start of the week, it wasn't even selling enough to make the Top 20—but it is now one of the UK's most popular tracks."[23]

    The following week, "Harlem Shake" debuted at number one on the US

    ARIA Singles Chart and became 1000th number-one song since Australia began compiling charts in 1940.[27]

    "Harlem Shake" remained at number one on the Hot 100 in its second week, when it sold 297,000 digital units. It also received more airplay after being promoted to radio by

    £50,000 from YouTube.[31] "Harlem Shake" remained at number one for five consecutive weeks on the Hot 100.[32]

    Copyright infringement

    The tale of how an obscure dance track containing possible copyright violations rose to the top of pop charts illustrates not only the free-for-all nature of underground dance music but also the power of an Internet fad to create a sudden hit outside the major-label system.

    — James C. McKinley Jr.[13]

    Neither vocal sample used on "Harlem Shake" was contractually cleared with Héctor Delgado or Jayson Musson, who were both shocked to hear the song after it became a hit. In February, Delgado was told by his former manager Javier Gómez that he heard his voice on the song and wanted to take legal action. According to Gómez, Diplo subsequently called Delgado and told him that he was unaware "Harlem Shake" sampled his voice when it was released as a single. Gómez called "Harlem Shake" "a clear breaking of

    intellectual property rights" and said that since Diplo's call, lawyers for Machete Music have been negotiating with Mad Decent over compensation for the sample.[13]

    Musson received an enthusiastic call in late February from a past member of Plastic Little telling him that his voice was sampled on "Harlem Shake".[13] Musson did not have a problem with Baauer using the sample without his permission and found the song's production "phenomenal".[5] He subsequently called Baauer to thank him for "doing something useful with our annoying music".[13] However, he felt that the allusion to the dance was "peculiar" and outdated: "I was like, Who the fuck is rapping about the Harlem Shake in 2012?"[5] Musson said in an interview in March that he and Mad Decent were in negotiations regarding compensation, and that the label had been "more than cooperative during this".[13]

    In April, Diplo told

    The Huffington Post that he had reached an agreement to clear the samples.[33] However, in an August interview with Pitchfork, Baauer said that he has not made any money from the song, despite Diplo's reported agreement: "I'm meeting with my lawyer ... so I'm gonna find that out. I think it's mostly because of all the legal shit. I didn't clear the samples because I was in my fucking bedroom on Grand Street. I wasn't going to think to call up [Delgado], I didn't even know who it was who did that [sample]; I knew the Jayson Musson [sample]. So I found myself in that fucking pickle. Legal letters and shit. Ugh. Lawyers. So exposure-wise it was fantastic, but everything else..."[34]

    Critical reception

    Pitchfork journalist Larry Fitzmaurice labelled the song "Best New Track" upon its release in May 2012 and called it a "disorienting banger" with an "irresistible appeal" that "owes almost everything" to its "menacing, world-smashing bassline". Fitzmaurice wrote in conclusion, "Along with this purely visceral pleasure, it's hard not to marvel at how awesome those growling-lion samples sound."[6] Randall Roberts of the Los Angeles Times said that he liked the song and viewed it as a "syrupy instrumental" that foreshadows "the convergence of hip-hop, dance and rock".[35]

    Andrew Ryce of

    Thrift Shop", reflects a "centerless future" for hip hop and stated, "Depending on your lens, this reflects a tremendous cultural victory for hip-hop or the moment when hip-hop, as a construct, begins to lose meaning."[11]

    Remixes

    Azealia Banks (2012), one of several rappers who remixed the song

    On February 14, 2013, American rapper Azealia Banks released a remix to "Harlem Shake" on SoundCloud,[36] which was then removed at Baauer's request. Banks disparaged Baauer on Twitter in response and claimed to have e-mails sent from him giving her permission to use the song. She then said that Diplo had sent her an e-mail telling her that the remix was removed because they would rather have rapper Juicy J on it.[37] On February 16, Banks shared a music video for her remix on Vimeo,[38] and revealed a purported e-mail from Baauer saying he liked the remix.[11] Baauer responded in an interview for The Daily Beast, saying that they had planned to release a version of the song with Banks, but felt that her verse did not meet their expectations:

    She laid something on 'Harlem Shake' and it was so/so. Didn't love it. And that was a little while ago, and since all this video stuff happened, our plans all changed. Because of that, we decided to just release the song on its own with no vocal version. So we told her, 'Please don't release your version.' And she said, 'Well, I'm going to put it online anyway.' And we said, 'Please don't. We'd really like it if you didn't.' And she did.[37]

    Jon Caramanica of The New York Times cited Banks' remix as one of her best songs,[11] while Chris Martins of Spin wrote that she delivers "fire-hot verse after fire-hot verse" and facetiously remarked that "Banks raps all over your dumb 'Harlem Shake' meme".[39]

    Pitbull and Jim Jones also recorded freestyle raps over the song.[40] After releasing his version, Jones claimed in an interview that "Harlem Shake" was a song he originally recorded one year ago for an album by Pauly D, but that they ultimately scrapped it: "When I started to hear the 'Harlem Shake' and heard the beat, I was like damn, I had the record for a year. So I just put the record out."[41]

    Track listing

    Digital download[8]

    1. "Harlem Shake" – 3:16
    2. "Yaow!" – 2:11

    Charts

    Certifications

    Region Certification Certified units/sales
    Australia (ARIA)[85] 2× Platinum 140,000^
    Belgium (BEA)[86] Gold 15,000*
    New Zealand (RMNZ)[87] Platinum 15,000*
    United Kingdom (BPI)[88] Silver 200,000*
    United States (RIAA)[89] 2× Platinum 2,000,000‡

    * Sales figures based on certification alone.
    ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
    ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

    Release history

    Date Format Label Catalog
    May 22, 2012[6] Free digital download Jeffree's JEFF016[8]
    January 8, 2013[90] iTunes download Mad Decent —

    See also

    References

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    Further reading

    External links

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