Thong Song (Sisqó)
The platinum-blond Dru Hill frontman's solo signature — a 2000 smash so ubiquitous you couldn't escape it. 'She had dumps like a truck, truck, truck...' Sisqó turned a string section, a booming beat, and one very specific ode into the sound of that summer.
Sisqó — born Mark Andrews, the lead singer of Baltimore R&B group Dru Hill — released 'Thong Song' as a single on February 15, 2000, from his solo debut album Unleash the Dragon (1999). The album had sold modestly until the single detonated: propelled by a soaring orchestral arrangement, a thundering beat, and one of the most quoted choruses of the decade, it shot to number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Rhythmic chart.
The song, and its beach-and-swimsuit video, made Sisqó and his silver hair inescapable in 2000. It earned four Grammy nominations and became a pop-culture punchline and party staple in equal measure — the kind of record that defines a specific moment so completely it can't really belong to any other year. His follow-up single, the ballad 'Incomplete,' actually went one better and hit number one.
Despite the mountain of attention, Sisqó never again matched 'Thong Song,' and it remains his signature — a solo record, not a Dru Hill one, though his group appears in the video. Two decades on it endures as a pure, undiluted time capsule of 2000.
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