"Cat Daddy" is a 2011 song by American
hip hop group
The Rej3ctz. It is based on a dance of the same name and is from the 2010
mixtape ''TheFUNKtion vs theKICKback''. "Cat Daddy" was a
MTV Jams
BET Jams is an American pay television network controlled by BET Networks and owned by Paramount Media Networks. The channel features hip-hop and urban contemporary music videos. The network, formerly known as MTV Jams, was rebranded under the B ...
"Jam Of The Week" in January 2011. It was released for
digital download on February 16, 2011, on
iTunes and subsequently charted on several
''Billboard'' charts, including the
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...
chart, where it spent fourteen weeks and eventually peaked at number 77, after being re-released on June 27, 2011. In 2018, the song was
certified
Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...
platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America.
Chris Brown performed the Cat Daddy dance during the ''
106 & Park
''106 & Park'' is an American hip hop and R&B music video show, set up in a countdown format, that was broadcast on weekdays at 6:00 pm ET/5:00 pm CT on BET; it aired on a one-day delay on BET International. It was the network's highest- rate ...
'' 10th Anniversary special in October 2010. Brown was the featured dance performer on the song's official video, which has about 109 million
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
views. A Cat Daddy 2.0 video by
Mario Van Peebles
Mario Van Peebles (born January 15, 1957) is an American film director and actor best known for directing and starring in ''New Jack City'' in 1991 and '' USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage'' in 2016. He is the son of actor and filmmaker Melvin Va ...
preceded the re-release of the song and was associated with the movie ''
We the Party
''We the Party'' is a 2012 comedy film written and directed by Mario Van Peebles and starring Mandela Van Peebles, Simone Battle, Moises Arias, Mario Van Peebles, and Snoop Dogg. Set in an ethnically diverse Los Angeles high school, it focuses on ...
''. Several notable celebrities have been filmed doing the dance, including
Justin Bieber
Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...
and
Selena Gomez
Selena Marie Gomez ( ; born July 22, 1992) is an American singer, actress and producer. Gomez began her acting career on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004). As a teenager, she rose to prominence for starring a ...
. The dance is described as a combination of buckling a seatbelt and rolling a wheelchair.
The song and dance became a
viral video
A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...
in May 2012 when then-current ''
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
The ''Sports Illustrated'' Swimsuit Issue is published annually by American magazine ''Sports Illustrated'' and features female fashion models, celebrities and athletes wearing swimwear in various locales around the world. The highly coveted co ...
''
cover model A cover model is a male or female whose photograph appears on the front cover of a magazine. The cover model is generally a fashion model, celebrity, or contest winner. Generally, cover models are depicted solitarily; however, on occasion magazines ...
Kate Upton
Katherine Elizabeth Upton (born June 10, 1992) is an American model. She first appeared in the ''Sports Illustrated'' Swimsuit Issue in 2011, and was the cover model for the 2012, 2013 and 2017 issues. In addition, she was the subject of the 1 ...
posted a video of her
bikini
A bikini is a two-piece swimsuit primarily worn by women that features two triangles of fabric on top that cover the breasts, and two triangles of fabric on the bottom: the front covering the pelvis but exposing the navel, and the back coverin ...
-clad rendition of the dance on YouTube, causing YouTube to temporarily ban the video. The propriety of the YouTube ban was hotly debated with articles in many top-tier publications including the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'', ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' and the ''
Daily News'' as well as leading news services such as
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
and
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
. Her video has about 27.25 million YouTube views, .
Release
The "Cat Daddy" dance was originated by
The Rej3ctz group member Reject Sam Awelope (DJ Major League) before the group linked it to the song.
[ The song came from a 2010 mixtape entitled ''TheFUNKtion vs theKICKback'',][ which is sometimes just referred to as ''The FUNKtion''.][ In late 2010 and 2011, Chris Brown popularized the Cat Daddy dance after performing it in the official video.] On October 6, 2010, Brown performed the Cat Daddy on ''106 & Park'' for their 10-year anniversary show. Then, the Rej3ctz released a video of the song, featuring Brown dancing, that was produced at Venice Beach
Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California.
Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...
on or before August 2010.
The song was released February 16, 2011 as a music download
A music download (commonly referred to as a digital download) is the digital transfer of music via the Internet into a device capable of decoding and playing it, such as a personal computer, portable media player, MP3 player or smartphone. T ...
on iTunes. According to Thomas Clayton of ''The Daily Rind'', the song had 14,000 downloads on iTunes in its first week and the video had 9 million pageviews at the time. By April 20, 2011, the official video had 21 million pageviews. the original December 2, 2010 upload of the official video has over 86 million YouTube views, while an alternate March 9, 2011 upload of the video has an additional 22.9 million plus views.
In April 2011, Mario Van Peebles
Mario Van Peebles (born January 15, 1957) is an American film director and actor best known for directing and starring in ''New Jack City'' in 1991 and '' USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage'' in 2016. He is the son of actor and filmmaker Melvin Va ...
produced a "Cat Daddy 2.0" video that included appearances of several artist playing parody roles of themselves like actor and singer Quincy, rapper YG and entertainer Carlos Olivero. The video was associated with the release of Van Peebles' movie ''We the Party
''We the Party'' is a 2012 comedy film written and directed by Mario Van Peebles and starring Mandela Van Peebles, Simone Battle, Moises Arias, Mario Van Peebles, and Snoop Dogg. Set in an ethnically diverse Los Angeles high school, it focuses on ...
'' and the story behind The Rej3ctz' audition for it.[ The video shows how The Rej3ctz anticipated succeeding in their auditions, but realized that the competition was stiffer than expected. They were rejected until Van Peebles' kids got Mario to ask them to perform their song and dance. The video was Van Peebles' first music video. The song was re-released on iTunes on June 27, 2011.][
]
Reception
'' Billboard'' described the song as a "low-slung". MostlyJunkFood.com described the song and video as "another one of those weak on lyrical content, but making up for it with a bangin beat and some standard Chris Breezy dancin’ abouts". In January 2011, the song was recognized by MTV Jams
BET Jams is an American pay television network controlled by BET Networks and owned by Paramount Media Networks. The channel features hip-hop and urban contemporary music videos. The network, formerly known as MTV Jams, was rebranded under the B ...
as the "Jam Of The Week". Although the song only spent one week on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking at number 97 on June 18, 2011, it spent fourteen weeks on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...
chart peaking at 77 on July 16, 2011, and was listed on the Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...
list for eleven weeks, peaking at number 12 on June 18, 2011.
Production background
The original video was directed by Alex Nazari. ''TheFUNKtion vs theKICKback'' mixtape that included "Cat Daddy" was produced by JHawk.[
]
Kate Upton videos
Kate Upton
Katherine Elizabeth Upton (born June 10, 1992) is an American model. She first appeared in the ''Sports Illustrated'' Swimsuit Issue in 2011, and was the cover model for the 2012, 2013 and 2017 issues. In addition, she was the subject of the 1 ...
, who in February 2012 was the cover model for the ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue'', recorded a video of the Dougie that went viral and garnered over 5 million hits in April 2011.[ She announced her intention to release a video performance of the Cat Daddy when she served as ]grand marshal
Grand marshal is a ceremonial, military, or political office of very high rank. The term has its origins with the word "marshal" with the first usage of the term "grand marshal" as a ceremonial title for certain religious orders. The following ...
for the 2012 Daytona 500
The 2012 Daytona 500 was the first stock car race of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. The 54th iteration of the event, it was held between February 27 and 28, 2012 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, before a ...
. The video of Upton dancing on a break between photo shots was posted online on April 30.
After garnering close to 1 million hits in the first 24 hours,[ YouTube banned Kate Upton's version of the dance from their site for being too risqué. After some deliberation about whether it "violated the website’s rules on nudity and sexual content" the video was restored to their website.] Upton's Cat Daddy video clip was a part of Terry Richardson
Terrence Richardson (born August 14, 1965) is an American fashion and portrait photographer. He has shot advertising campaigns for Marc Jacobs, Aldo, Supreme, Sisley, Tom Ford, and Yves Saint Laurent among others, and also done work for ma ...
's vlog
A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded i ...
.[ Richardson has a reputation for "raunchy" artwork. According to the ''Los Angeles Times'' the video was removed on May 1, 2012, while the ''Daily News'' reported its removal was May 2.][
Both agree that the video was restored late on May 2,][ although Fox News reports that it was initially restored with an age restriction.] During the YouTube ban, Upton's Cat Daddy gained exposure at Vimeo
Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software a ...
when Richardson uploaded it there in response to the ban.[ , her version of the dance has received about 27.25 million YouTube views.
Following Upton's April 30 rendition, The Rej3ctz were impressed enough with Upton that they attempted to contact her regarding future collaboration(s).][ On the edition of June 21, 2012 of '' Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' she performed a fully clothed rendition of the "Cat Daddy" alongside Fallon. Prior to performing the dance she described the movements of the dance as buckling a seatbelt and rolling a wheelchair.] YouTube now hosts videos of numerous celebrities doing the Cat Daddy including Selena Gomez
Selena Marie Gomez ( ; born July 22, 1992) is an American singer, actress and producer. Gomez began her acting career on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004). As a teenager, she rose to prominence for starring a ...
and Justin Bieber
Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...
.[
]
Track listing
*Digital Download – Explicit version
# "Cat Daddy" —
*Digital Download – Clean version
# "Cat Daddy" —
*Digital Download – Extended play
# "Cat Daddy" —
# "Cat Daddy" —
# "Cat Daddy" —
Chart performance
Release history
Certifications
References
{{authority control
2010 songs
2011 singles
Viral videos