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They demand an answer, but offer none. “Who let the dogs out? Who, who, who, who?” ask the Baha Men, four times in succession.Advertisement
The group’s only major U.S. hit, “Who Let The Dogs Out,” dropped into the new millennium on July 25, 2000, as a cover of a calypso track already popular in the Caribbean. While it would only climb to No. 40 on the Billboard charts, the song became inescapable ― especially if you were a kid, or were raising one, at the time. Or if you often found yourself in sports stadiums.
The track initially sold three million albums, yet its enigmatic refrain remained unresolved. Who let the dogs out? To know that, we first need to answer: Who are the dogs?
According to Anslem Douglas, the Trinidad and Tobago native who wrote the original song in 1996, titled “Doggie” ― which was covered hideously by a British group before the Baha Men ― the dogs are badly behaved dudes.
“It’s a man-bashing song, it is,” Douglas told The Huffington Post, explaining how his former brother-in-law often used the phrase.Advertisement
“He used to come in and say, ‘Who let the dogs out?!’ And one time he asked me, ‘Why don’t you turn this into a song?’” he explained. “And the rest is history.”
Although we suspected the words between the song’s riotous refrains may actually refer to women ― “dog” can be a derogatory term for either gender ― the lyrics back him up. After their first round of asking who, who, let the dogs out, the Baha Men sing:
The scene: a party. Douglas, however, explained that the party is merely a metaphor ― another way to say things were going swell, generally, in life. The speaker then calls on his male friends to engage in rude name-calling toward the women partygoers, who respond in turn. According to Douglas, it’s the women who then start calling the men “dogs” in each refrain.
(He also told us the song is chiefly a lighthearted one, and that the lyrics weren’t necessarily meant for extended analysis.)Advertisement
In other lines, the speaker orders the “ruffy,” “scruffy, “flea-infested mongrel” dogs to “get back,” but at one point changes his tune to defend his terrible friends from “any girls calling them canine.” He vows to be calm in the face of such verbal abuse, prying the “dummy” women to just be chill, gawd. The next stanza, though, seemingly rejects male gender norms to suggest that “a doggy is nuttin’” if he doesn’t have “a bone” ― or a romantic partner. The last bit has the speaker seemingly worrying about a particular love interest in the sea of terrible prospects, ultimately puffing up his chest to call himself “the man of the land” and positioning himself as a sort of alpha. While the song bashes male “dogs,” the speaker admits he’s one of their pack.
So, who let them all out?
We asked Douglas point blank, along with Baha Men lead singer Isaiah Taylor and S-Curve founder Steven Greenberg, who recorded the track.
“I can’t answer that! If I answer that, people will stop asking,” Douglas said, laughing. “100 years from now, I will still not [have] answer[ed] that.”
“I think that’s a question best left unanswered,” the producer said. “Why ruin it? Why get people to stop guessing?”
Taylor, though, had a different answer.
“I always say that that our drummer did that,” he said, explaining how it became an inside joke among the Baha Men to accuse their bandmate.Advertisement
“We say, ‘Hey, man, you let the dogs out!’”
No one asked us, but if they had, we might have suggested it had something to do with the persistent patriarchal systems that created a culture where men can behave badly with minimal consequence to their reputations or relationships.
But maybe it was the drummer.
‘It’s a man-bashing song, it is’, Anslem Douglas, the man who wrote the original song ‘Doggie’, told the Huffington Post.
But the revelations are interesting because if you had ever stopped to ponder the lyrics, you probably wrongly assumed that the ‘dogs’ the Baha Men spoke of were women.
The rubbish fun song by the Baha Men was, bizarrely, very popular – but it left us with a lot of unanswered questions.
Douglas also added that the lyrics were not intended for extensive analysis, which is probably why it has taken us 16 years to get this far.
He explained that his definition of ‘dogs’ is badly-behaved men, and in the song, women are bemoaning some gents who have called them rude names, describing them as ‘dogs’.
“Who Let the Dogs Out?” is a song popularized by the Baha Men off their album Who Let the Dogs Out? and the Rugrats in Paris film. The song, originally called “Doggie,” was recorded by Trinidadian artist Anslem in 1998 before it was covered by Baha Men. The song has been oft referenced online in numerous memes.
The song proved to be a huge hit, by far the most popular song of the Baha Mens career. It hit number 1 in Australia and New Zealand and charted in the top ten in many European countries. It appeared on the soundtrack for Rugrats in Paris and has went on to see use in sporting events. The New York Mets used it as a team anthem in their 2000 postseason run, and the Baha Men performed the song before Game 4 of the 2000 World Series at Shea Stadium. It has been used during multiple seasons for the New York Mets. The song has also inspired macros related to dog content (examples shown below).
“Who Let the Dogs Out” was written by Trinidadian artist Anslem under the name “Doggie” (shown below, left). Anslem explained that the song was originally meant to be a song about men ruining a party by harassing women and calling them names. When the manager of Baha Men heard the song, he convinced the band to record it, thinking it would be a major hit. On July 26th, 2000, the Baha Men released their cover of “Who Let the Dogs Out?”
Baha Men – Who Let The Dogs Out (Official Video)
The nostalgia is real when it comes to Baha Men’s “Who Let The Dogs Out.” Most 90s kids remember hearing the song in Rugrats in Paris, which is how it achieved fame, and nowadays it’s used as a pump-up song in sports arenas everywhere.
However, when shouting back the boisterous “who, who, who, who, who!” at sports games, most don’t consider the meaning of “Who Let The Dogs Out.” And we certainly weren’t thinking about it as kids.
Looking at the lyrics today, we can see that they are actually quite feminist. They depict a bumping party where everybody is dancing and having a good time until the men start aggressively hitting on the women.
As we can see, these fellas showed up at the party and started catcalling the women, who were previously having a ball.
However, these women look out for each other, so they shout out in response and refer to the disrespectful men as dogs. Hence the chorus:
The lyrics to the first bridge are fairly hard to make out, and are listed differently in different places, but the important part is that she calls this dog, named “Gruffy” or “Scruffy”, a “flea-infested mongrel.”
Clearly these men are not doing themselves any favors with the women at the party, though to them it is just part of the game.
In the second verse we can see that the singer himself is playing that game, and he’s trying to tell himself not to be upset when a woman calls him a dog, because this is the game that he signed up for.
His goal, at the end of the night, is to have a woman in front of him while he’s behind her. If you’re thinking of doggystyle, then you’re on the right track:
Next up is another hit of that booming chorus, and then a short section with repeated lyrics stating how a doggy is nothing without his bone. Of course, this is yet another innuendo.
In the third verse, we can see that the singer has accepted his status as a dog, and has decided to stop thinking about it and just enjoy the night:
We’re offered a visual of the white short shorts that this dog wears when he’s on the prowl, and he’s got rays coming from his eyes as he searches around the place for somebody to go home with.
He says that he doesn’t see color, meaning that he isn’t too picky about the woman he goes home with, and he’s ready to stick on the next willing participant like a pitbull.
“Who Let The Dogs Out” was not written by the Baha Men but rather by the Trinidadian composer Anslem Douglas, who first recorded the song as a single called “Doggie” in 1998.
Soon after, it was covered by Jonathan King with his project Fat Jakk and his Pack of Pets. King showed the track to record producer Steve Goldberg, who gave it to the Baha Men and “Who Let The Dogs Out Was Born”.
Listen to versions of the song by Baha Men, Anslem Douglas, and Fat Jakk and his Pack of Pets below.