Interestingly, a television documentary that is available on Hulu answers the mystery. The documentary, directed by Brent Hodge, titled Who Let the Dogs Out, premiered at SXSW in 2019. To get to the beginning of the story, many can trace the song’s origins back to Anslem Douglas’ song “Doggie.”
In a close timeline with Stephenson and Williams, 20 Fingers and Gillette released the song “You’re a Dog” with a chorus that is wildly similar to Stephens and Williams’ jingle. 20 Fingers and Gillette’s chorus asks “Who let the dogs loose” but Stephens and Williams never heard the version of that song and neither group took legal action against the other. A similar situation happened when a Miami rap duo, which included Brett Hammock and Joe Gonzalez, recorded a song called “Who Let the Dogs Out?” in 1992. All of these people were surprised to hear the Baha Men’s version hit the charts in 2000.
In an interview on his website, Anslem Douglas reveals that “It’s a man-bashing song. I’ll tell you why. The lyric of the song says, The party was nice, the party was pumpin‘. When I said the word party I was being metaphorical. It really means things were going great.” And things were going great, Until the men start the name-callin’ / And then the girls respond to the call.
But to get back to the song’s origins, in 1996, Patrick Stephenson and Leroy Williams, two producers for Wreck Shop Radio in Toronto, wrote the chorus for “Who Let The Dogs Out.” They had written this chorus for a radio station jingle in Buffalo, New York. Douglas’ brother-in-law worked at the same radio station, heard the jingle, and convinced Douglas to record it with Stephenson and Williams’ permission.
Bridging the ’90s and the new millennium, many believe that the Baha Men created the song and gained fame for its appearance in the Rugrats in Paris: The Movie. Yet, that is not entirely the case. We are here, however, to tell you who actually let the dogs out and the meaning behind the song lyrics. Let’s get into it.
First released in 2000 it was an instant hit but while everyone was dancing and singing it, it wasn’t actually a happy song.
The writer of the song Anslem Douglas said ”The men started the name-calling and then the girls respond to the call. And then a woman shouts out, ‘Who let the dogs out?’ And we start calling men dogs. It was really a man-bashing song.”
”and tell the fellas stop the name callin’ Yapee ah yo Tell them girls respond to the call I hear a woman shout out Who let the dogs out?”
If I could create a list of songs that get stuck in my head more than others, The Baha Men’s ”Who Let The Dogs Out” would be up there alongside the Crazy Frog.
Here is the thing, it’s actually about men when they start to call women names and be really disrespectful, so they fire back by calling them dogs.