The Accidental Success and Freaky Legacy of ‘Wait (The Whisper Song)’
15 years ago, the Ying Yang Twins created a raunchy rap classic with a surprising shelf life
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In the early months of 2005, hip-hop found itself, yet again, in a state of transition. Although The Game had just released his debut album, The Documentary, 50 Cent and his G-Unit juggernaut were beginning to show signs of strain. Free mp3s of new and unreleased songs were spreading around the world faster than record labels could shut down the zShare links. But perhaps most importantly, folks nationwide were finally beginning to admit what had been true for years: The sound of hip-hop had firmly taken root in Atlanta.
Teenagers in the A weren’t yet the defining shapers of modern culture as we know it, but things were poppin’. T.I. was molding himself into the Jay-Z of the South on the strength of Urban Legend, Young Jeezy’s trap-or-die ethos was about to explode, and the Aphilliates’ Gangsta Grillz series was setting itself up to become the most important mixtape franchise of the decade. Into this reality came the Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper Song),” a ridiculous, unexpected, transformative globule of pop…
