Ridin'

Chamillionaire featuring Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony released "Ridin'" on November 12, 2005 as the second single from Chamillionaire's debut album The Sound of Revenge. Produced by Play-N-Skillz, the song narrates the experience of being profiled by police — "ridin' dirty" in the title, but the lyrics are about being watched and suspected simply for existing. Krayzie Bone's featured verse adds the heft of a legendary artist co-signing a rising rapper.

The single reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2006 and stayed on the chart for 31 weeks, giving Chamillionaire his first No. 1 and Krayzie Bone his first since "Tha Crossroads" a decade earlier. It won Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 49th Grammy Awards, with a nomination for Best Rap Song. Rolling Stone ranked it No. 3 among the best songs of 2006.

But the cultural moment was the ringtone. "Ridin'" became the best-selling ringtone of 2006 with 3.2 million sold, making Chamillionaire the RIAA's first multi-platinum Mastertone artist — a title that now reads like ancient history, from the flip-phone era when a song's ringtone was its own commodity. The hook escaped from speakers in cars and pockets everywhere. "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody "White & Nerdy" gave it an unexpected second life years later, but in 2006, the song belonged to the ringtone era and the cars that played it.