It is the year Two Thousand and Seventeen (I just checked) and Sisqo has released a music video for a remake of his iconic 1999 hit “Thong Song,” because according to him, fans have been asking for a new version of the song for years.
“Thong Song” simultaneously defined an era and historicized a trend (thongs)—it’s a song you can never forget. But consider: Of the many hits from the late ’90s/2000s, how many times have you heard “Thong Song” at a dance spot compared to, say, a Nelly record? Can you imagine someone today writing lyrics like, “She had dumps like a truck, truck, truck”?
For better or worse, though, this is Sisqo’s magnum opus, and since he claims a number of people have requested a remake, here it is, courtesy of producers JCY. The remake, which trades the original theatrical beat for slightly more understated summery gongs, still immediately sparks mental images of tacky thongs peeking out the top of dangerously low-cut jeans.
“I don’t hate it,” says one Jezebel staffer.
Sisqo tells BuzzFeed, possibly exaggerating, “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. I thought it was dope and figured maybe it was time to put some new rims on the Bugatti.”
Although the song isn’t terrible, whom asked for this? The video features a bunch of models skating in thongs and popping Champagne on the beach. Also, this, which needs to be explained:
Unfortunately, there are no poorly green-screened acrobatic Sisqo moves this time around. According to him, issues arose with the video shoot. “We experienced a devastating loss in our team and we were all pretty emotional,” he says. “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.”