Doo Wop (That Thing)

Album

Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, The

Label

Ruffhouse Records

Genre

Doo-Wop

Duration

2:00

Composer(s)

Lauryn Hill

Entered Chart

Nov 14, 1998

Peak Date

Nov 14, 1998

Released

August 10, 1998

Recorded

1997–1998[1] Studio Marley Music (Kingston) Chung King (New York City)

Catalog #

Ruffhouse 78868

B-Side

Lost Ones"

Written by Lauryn Hill, this was the singer's debut single. The song is a warning against guys who are more interested in frivolous, expensive things than their girlfriends or families. Hill had some difficult relationships that may have inspired this; she dated Wyclef Jean from her group Fugees and was once engaged to Rohan Marley, son of Bob Marley. This won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Female Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance. Hill also won for for Best Rhythm & Blues Song. The album received 11 nominations, making it the first hip-hop record to receive that many. It won five, making Hill the first female artist to win that many. The album was named after The Mis-Education Of The Negro, a book by Professor Carter G. Woodson, an American black history expert, and The Education of Sonny Carson, an autobiographical film about the title controversial activist. The album, which was written, arranged and produced entirely by Hill, was about the education one receives after leaving school, the life learning process. With this song, Hill became the first woman since Debbie Gibson to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with a song she wrote, recorded, and produced on her own. Gibson did the same with "Foolish Beat" in 1989. It was an accomplishment Hill was not encouraged to make. "For some reason, women aren't taken seriously as thinkers and creators and arrangers and producers," she told Playboy. "The industry thinks there always has to be some man somewhere puppeteering the whole situation. It doesn't make you feel good as an artist when you are having conversations about your music and people don't take it seriously." Hill wanted to prove that a female artist could use her brains to have a chart-topper rather than her body, unlike fellow performers like Lil' Kim. She told Details magazine: "I'm not dissing them, I'm dissing their mind-set. My music talks about a certain way of thinking, and if the cap fits, you know? I knew girls like Kim growing up - I might have even been one at certain age - and there's a huge lack of self-esteem behind that thinking. I mean, when I was 14 I thought that if a guy didn't whistle at me, that meant I wasn't pretty. But either you mature past that or you get caught in the concept of, 'Oh, I have to show some ass, 'cause that's the only way I can feel beautiful.' Sex is cool, but it's only part of the story." The music video, shot in Manhattan's Washington Heights, uses a split-screen to show two different Hills performing the song. On the left, she's decked out like a '60s-style R&B star, while on the right she's a modern hip-hop performer. This was used on the MTV animated series Daria in the 1999 episode "Through a Lens Darkly." Glee's Amber Riley and Naya Rivera covered this on the 2014 episode "Back-Up Plan."

Girls, you know you'd better watch out
Some guys, some guys are only about
That thing (my men and my women)
That thing (don't forget about the deen)
That thing (the Sirat al-Mustaqim)
That thing (yo)
That thing (it's about a thing)
That thing (uh, yo)
If ya feel real good wave your hands in the air (yo, what? What? What?)
And lick two shots in the atmosphere (uh, yeah, yeah)
(Uh, uh, uh, put 'em up, put 'em up) yeah, a-yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, a-yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah) (put 'em up)
Yeah, a-yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah)

It's been three weeks since you were looking for your friend
The one you let hit it and never called you again (uh)
'Member when he told you he was 'bout the Benjamins? (Uh-huh, yeah)
You act like you ain't hear him, then give him a little trim
To begin, how you think you're really gon' pretend (pretend)
Like you wasn't down and you called him again? (Again)
Plus, when (when) you give it up so easy you ain't even foolin' him (him)
If you did it then, then you'd probably- again (again)
Talking out your neck, sayin' you're a Christian
A Muslim, sleeping with the gin
Now that was the sin that did Jezebel in
Who you gon' tell when the repercussions spin?
Showing off your ass 'cause you're thinkin' it's a trend
Girlfriend, let me break it down for you again
You know I only say it 'cause I'm truly genuine
Don't be a hard rock when you really are a gem
Baby girl (girl), respect is just a minimum (minimum)
N- and you still defending 'em (defending 'em)
Now, Lauryn is only human (human)
Don't think I haven't been through the same predicament (I been in)
Let it sit inside your head like a million women in Philly, Penn
It's silly when girls sell their souls because it's in
Look at where you be in, hair weaves like Europeans
Fake nails done by Koreans come again

Yo, a-win, win, come again (yeah, yeah)
Uh, bredrin come again (yeah, yeah)
My friend come again (yeah, yeah)
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, yo)
Yeah, yeah

Guys you know you'd better watch out (yeah, uh)
'Cause girls, some girls are only about (some guys, some guys are only)
That thing, that thing, that thing
That thing, that thing, that thing (one thing, one thing)
(Yo, yo)

The second verse is dedicated to the men (men)
More concerned with his rims and his Timbs than his women
Him and his men come in the club like hooligans
Don't care who they offend, poppin' yang (like you got yen)
Let's stop pretend, the ones that pack pistols by they waist men
Cristal by the case men, still in they mother's basement
The pretty face men claiming that they did a bid men
Need to take care of they three or four kids (man)
And they facin' court case when the child support late
Money taking and heart breaking, now you wonder why women hate men
And the sneaky, silent men
The punk, domestic violence men
And quick to shoot the semen, stop acting like boys and be men (be men)
How you gon' win, when you ain't right within? (How you gonna win?)
How you gon' win, when you ain't right within? (Bredrin)
How you gon' win, when you ain't right within? (Be men)
Uh, uh, come again, uh (uh, uh)

(Come again)
Yo, yo, come again (yeah, yeah)
Yo, bredrin come again (yeah, yeah)
And sistren come again (yeah, yeah)
(Yeah) yeah, yeah

Watch out, watch out
Look out, look out
Wa-watch out, watch out
Look out, look out
Watch out, watch out
Look out, look out
Wa-watch out, watch out
Look out, look out

Girls you know you'd better watch out (uh, huh)
Some guys, some guys are only about
That thing, that thing, that thing
That thing, that thing, that thing
Guys you know you'd better watch out
'Cause girls, some girls are only about
That thing, that thing, that thing
That thing, that thing, that thing

Girls you know you'd better watch out (some guys, some guys are really not ready)
Some guys, some guys are only about (yeah, some girls, some girls are only, uh)
That thing, that thing, that thing (we taking it back, yo, way back, yo)
That thing, that thing, that thing