Who Dat?

Who dat? is an English idiom originating from New Orleans. First referenced in poetry, the phrase was a common dialogue element between the performers and crowd at traveling minstrel shows in the region. Eventually, the phrase became used in US cinematic productions for two decades, including TV and movies. In World War II, the phrase became known as a source of entertainment for American soldiers.

More recently, the phrase "Who dat?" has become a chant of team support. It is most widely used by fans of the New Orleans Saints, an American football team. The entire chant is: "Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?" "Who dat" may also be used as a noun, describing a Saints fan.

Origins

The chant of "Who Dat?" originated in minstrel shows and vaudeville acts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was taken up by jazz and big band performers in the 1920s and '30s.

The first reference to "Who Dat?" can be found in the 19th Century in the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, first in his poem "When Malindy Sings" and later in his lyrics to the song "Who Dat Say Chicken in dis Crowd", a featured song in Clorindy: The Origin of the Cakewalk, an "operetta" by Dunbar and Will Marion Cook that was first presented as part of E.E. Rice's 1898 show "Summer Nights". A common tag line in the days of Negro minstrel shows was: "Who dat?" answered by "Who dat say who dat?" Many different blackfaced gags played off that opening. Vaudeville performer Mantan Moreland was known for the routine. Another example is "Swing Wedding", a 1930s Harman-Ising cartoon musical, which caricatured Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Ethel Waters, and the Mills Brothers as frogs in a swamp performing minstrel show jokes and jazz tunes. The frogs repeatedly used the phrase "who dat?"

Who Dat

Who Dat (AAVE for "who is that?") can mean:

Who Dat (J. Cole song)

"Who Dat" is a song by the American hip hop recording artist J. Cole. It was released as a single in the United States on May 31, 2010. Despite initially being meant to be the lead single from Cole's first album Cole World: The Sideline Story (2011), "Who Dat" was ultimately cut from the album's standard track listing. It does, however, appear as a bonus track on the iTunes edition of the album.

Background and composition

Produced by J. Cole and Elite, "Who Dat" contains samples of "Godofallofus" as performed by New Hope and a line from "SpottieOttieDopalicious" by Outkast, in which André 3000 raps "Now who else wanna fuck with Hollywood Courts?". Explaining why he chose "Who Dat" to be his first single, Cole said, "It's really about the beat and the raps and not much more. It's an introduction to those that were unfamiliar and also something for my fans to brag about as opposed to hearing it on the radio and being like 'Ehhh.'" He also described the song as "raw" and stated that it reminded him of his older sound. While the song does not appear as a standard track on his first studio album Cole World: The Sideline Story (2011), Cole kept the song as a bonus track because "[it] connects the past two years to everything."