J. Dash, September 7, 2008
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Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest Revision - December 5, 2023
This pancocojams post presents information about J Dash's "WOP" record and showcases six YouTube videos that feature that record.
The Addendum to this post presents my theory about the origin of the "WOP" dance name.
The content of this post is presented for cultural,
entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to J Dash for this record and thanks to all those who
are featured in these showcase videos. Thanks also to the publishers of these
videos.
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This is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on
African American dances with the name "Wop". Click the tag below for
other pancocojams posts in this series
EXCERPT ABOUT THIS RECORD
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wop_(song)
" "Wop" (stylized in all caps) is a song by
J. Dash featuring pop rapper Flo Rida. First recorded in 2007, it was released
in 2011 to serve as the lead single for J. Dash's album Tabloid Truth, released
in 2012.
Upon the release of the album, "Wop" became a minor hit on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but received renewed attention in March 2013 after pop singer Miley Cyrus posted a viral video of herself twerking to the song. The popularity of the video, along with parodies and responses made by fans, influenced its re-emergence on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 2013, peaking at #51 on the Hot 100, and #14 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Background
"Wop" was the name given to a hip hop dance that J. Dash and his friends had done to other songs at nightclubs. The song itself was created after he felt that they were "missing the track to go with our steps".[1][2]
Release and history
"Wop" was initially posted on J. Dash's YouTube channel in 2007; however, as the song began to go viral through user-posted videos of people performing its associated dance routine, he pulled the song and began work on a revised version to be released as a single,[3] followed by an official music video featuring fellow rapper Flo Rida in January 2011. The song would chart near the bottom of Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and by March 2012, at least 437,000 digital downloads of the song had been sold, and the video had reached 5.7 million views.[4][5]
The song would re-emerge to mainstream exposure on March 20,
2013, when Miley Cyrus posted a video on Facebook which featured her twerking
to "Wop" while wearing a unicorn onesie. While Cyrus had previously
shared her fondness for the song with J. Dash and suggested that they make a
video together, these plans never came to fruition. J. Dash was initially
unaware of the video's creation, but would learn of the video from his personal
friends and Cyrus herself while he was sick in bed with a stomach virus. He
declared the video to be the moment that twerking became a mainstream
phenomenon, and jokingly suggested that he and Cyrus should get matching
unicorn tattoos.[1][5]"...
-snip-
That Wikipedia page doesn't mention the renewed interest in J. Dash's "WOP" record in 2022 and 2023 thanks to a clip of its audio being used in numerous TikTok and YouTube short dance challenges, dance trend videos.
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #2 - WOP (Official iTunes Version) by J. Dash ft. Flo Rida - iTunesStereofame, Jan 7, 2011
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #3 - Miley Cyrus Twerk to "WOP" by J. Dash - OFFICIAL Compilation #MCTWERKTEAM
Stereofame, March 24, 2013
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The Technical Trading Lab, Oct 8, 2013
Just over three minutes of the best wop dance videos from the pp vine
****SHOWCASE VIDEO #5 - Gabi ♡May 18, 2022 #WopWopWop #Dancing #Dance
Gabi ♡May 18, 2022 #WopWopWop #Dancing #Dance
SHOWCASE VIDEO #6-Wop J. Dash TIKTOK DANCE
Eby Channel, September 11, 2023
ADDENDUM - WHERE DID THE HIP HOP DANCE NAME "WOP" COME FROM?
by Azizi Powell, written 2014, updated in 2023
The term "Wop" in the 1980s/1990s dance "The Wop", the song 2007 titled "The Wop" and the 2012 song titled "Da Wop" probably all come from the syllable "wop" that is used to as a referent for and lyrics in the ub-section of Rhythm & Blues music called "Doo-Wop". In that music the syllables "doo wop" are used to imitate the sound of bass instrumental music.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doo-wop
"Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s,[2] mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.[3][4] It features vocal group harmony that carries an engaging melodic line to a simple beat with little or no instrumentation. Lyrics are simple, usually about love, sung by a lead vocal over background vocals, and often featuring, in the bridge, a melodramatically heartfelt recitative addressed to the beloved. Harmonic singing of nonsense syllables (such as "doo-wop") is a common characteristic of these songs.[5] Gaining popularity in the 1950s, doo-wop was "artistically and commercially viable" until the early 1960s, but continued to influence performers in other genres."...
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Little Richard's now classic song "Tutti Frutti" is among other 1950s Rhythm & Blues and Rock & Roll songs that include the syllable "wop". The refrain to that song is "Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom!" although in earlier versions of that song Little Richard sang it as "Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam bam!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kM1khne_sg
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The syllable "wop" as a referent to a form of R&B music and as titles to Hip-Hop dances or songs has nothing whatsoever to do with the pejorative referent "Wop".
My guess is that the name "Wap" which some people use for the "Wop" dance in a small number of TikTok dance online dance challenges (since around 2022 ?) is an attempt to substitute a more socially correct name for that dance. However, it appears to me that most people still refer to this dance as "Wop", probably because that is the title of J Dash's record that is still being used for those dance challenges.
Here's some information about that pejorative referent "Wop" from
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wop
"wop
noun
often capitalized
offensive
—used as an insulting and contemptuous term for a person of
Italian birth or descent
Word History
Etymology
Italian dialect guappo swaggerer, tough, from Spanish guapo,
probably from Middle French dialect vape, wape weak, insipid, from Latin vappa
wine gone flat"
First Known Use
1906, in the meaning defined above
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