Get down

Get down is a stance, posture or movement in many traditional African cultures and throughout the African diaspora. It involves bending at the waist and knees, bringing the body low to the ground in moments of ecstasy or intensity. Bending at the knees and waist is an expression of profound spirituality and connectedness to the earth. It also indicates suppleness and conveys qualities and values of vitality, youthfulness and energy.

In Gahu choreography, often dancers move counterclockwise in a circle of alternating men and women; their performance includes "long passages of a lightly bouncy basic 'step' leavened with brief 'get down' sections in which the dancers lower their center of weight and move with intensified strength and quickness."

The term "get down" in popular music and slang is directly related to this particular element of the African aesthetic, filtered through the African-American experience. Use of the term by white Americans since the middle-20th century, though, is credited to the influence of a white disc jockey, Bill "Hoss" Allen, who used it on his nightly soul music shows on Nashville, Tennessee station WLAC.

Get Down

Get Down may refer to:

Music

Albums

Songs

No Diggity

"No Diggity" is a song by American R&B group Blackstreet featuring Dr. Dre and Queen Pen. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and in New Zealand, and number nine in the United Kingdom. "No Diggity" ended "Macarena"'s 14-week reign atop the Billboard Hot 100. It ranked at number 91 on Rolling Stone and MTV: 100 Greatest Pop Songs. It sold 1.6 million copies in 1996, and won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and was nominated for Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. It ranked at #32 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '90s. In the United Kingdom, the song climbed back into the top forty of the UK Singles Chart in March 2013, peaking at number thirty-eight 16 years after its original release there.

Background

Co-producer Teddy Riley originally offered the song to Guy as part of their short-lived reunion in 1996. After failing to record any material, he then suggested the song to Guy's lead singer Aaron Hall, who refused to take part in recording the song. He then offered the song to his other group Blackstreet. In a 2010 interview, Riley revealed the song was initially a hard sell among group members. He stated:

Queen Pen

Lynise Walters, better known by the stage name Queen Pen, (born 1972) is a Grammy-nominated American rapper.

Her music career started as a protégé of Teddy Riley, a record producer and member of the R&B group BLACKstreet in the mid-1990s. She was a featured rapper, along with Dr. Dre, on BLACKstreet's 1996 hit, "No Diggity". She signed to Riley's Lil' Man label, and released My Melody (1997), her solo debut album, produced by Riley.

Her first album produced the charting singles "All My Love", "Man Behind the Music", and "Party Ain't a Party". Queen Pen earned a 1998 Soul Train nomination for Best New Artist. She also gained notice from her song "Girlfriend" (featuring Me'Shell NdegeOcello), where she explored same-sex affairs.

She took a three-year hiatus from rapping, and returned with Conversations With Queen (2001), her second album. She is now a novelist. Her son is also a rapper, who uses the stage name Nefu Da Don.

Personal life

With the release of the controversial lesbian-themed single, "Girlfriend," media sources often presumed Queen Pen as being an openly gay or bisexual woman for her daring decision in releasing a song that was taboo in the hip-hop community. During the song's release, Pen remained coy about her sexuality and would not disclose it unless it was going to be a "front page" story. She also added that if she told the press she was straight, she would be viewed as a liar; in turn, if she were to say she was gay, she would be viewed as someone trying to get publicity. In 2001, Pen officially disclosed to the press that she was neither gay nor bisexual. However, by 2008, Pen rebutted the aforementioned remark, and confirmed that she was indeed bisexual and had sexual relationships with both men and women.

Dr. Dre

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Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics. Dre was previously the co-owner of, and an artist on, Death Row Records. He has produced albums for and overseen the careers of many rappers, including The D.O.C., Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Xzibit, Knoc-turn'al, 50 Cent, The Game and Kendrick Lamar. He is credited as a key figure in the popularization of West Coast G-funk, a style of rap music characterized as synthesizer-based with slow, heavy beats. In 2014, Dr. Dre was ranked as the second richest figure in the American hip hop scene by Forbes with a net worth of $550 million; he is at the top of the 2015 Forbes list, with an estimated pre-tax take of $620 million in 2014.

Dre began his career as a member of the World Class Wreckin' Cru and later found fame with the influential gangsta rap group N.W.A with Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella, which popularized the use of explicit lyrics in rap to detail the violence of street life. His 1992 solo debut The Chronic, released under Death Row Records, led him to become one of the best-selling American performing artists of 1993 and to win a Grammy Award for the single "Let Me Ride". That same year he produced Death Row labelmate Snoop Dogg's quadruple platinum debut Doggystyle, and even molded artists into top-notch producers such as his step-brother Warren G, which led to his multi-platinum debut Regulate...G Funk Era in 1994, and Snoop Dogg's cousin Daz Dillinger which led to the double platinum debut album Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound in 1995.