"Knuck If You Buck" is a song by American

Southern hip hop Southern hip hop, also known as Southern rap, South Coast hip hop, or dirty south, is a blanket term for a regional genre of American hip hop music that emerged in the Southern United States, especially in Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Memp ...

group

Crime Mob Crime Mob is an American hip hop group from Atlanta consisting of six members: M.I.G., Cyco Black, Princess, Lil' Jay, Diamond, and Killa C. The group is best known for their songs " Knuck If You Buck" and " Rock Yo Hips". After an arrest in 2003 ...

. It was recorded at

PatchWerk Recording Studios Patchwerk Recording Studios is a recording studio located at 1094 Hemphill Avenue, West Midtown in Atlanta, GA. It was established in 1993 by former NFL offensive tackle Bob Whitfield of the Atlanta Falcons, and is currently owned and operate ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

and released on June 29, 2004 via

Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...

as the first single from their eponymous debut studio album ''

'' (2004). Written by members Jarques "M.I.G." Usher, Chris "Killa C" Henderson, Jonathan "Lil' Jay" Lewis, Venetia "Princess" Lewis and Brittany "

Diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...

" Carpentero, it was produced by Lil' Jay, and features fellow rapper

Lil Scrappy Darryl Raynard Richardson III (born January 19, 1984), better known by his stage name Lil Scrappy, is an American rapper. Richardson was discovered by producer and performer Lil Jon while performing at a bar in Atlanta. Along with labelmates ...

. Crime Mob was discovered by Grand Master Tommy Phillips IV of Crunk Incorporated known as #LiTgod Serious Lord. The single peaked at number 76 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and was certified Platinum by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

Lyrics and composition

The song's lyrics have been described as a "celebration of elbow-throwing and fist-fighting". With the group given a $1,000 advance, an unmixed version of the song became a local hit in Atlanta.

Music video

Directed by Bernard Gourley, the music video was released in August 2004.

Critical reception

Mosi Reeves of ''

Creative Loafing Atlanta ''Creative Loafing'' is a U.S. city monthly paper serving the Atlanta metropolitan area covering local news, politics, arts, entertainment, food, music and events. Its weekly print circulation is 70,000, and its cumulative readership in print is 47 ...

'' described the song as "a raucous fire-starter" and "one of the hardest songs of the era". David Jeffries of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

labeled it a "pumping party jam" and among the best tracks on the ''

'' album.

Impact

"Knuck If You Buck" has remained a nightclub staple. The song has also been known to cause altercations at parties. In 2006, during a late-night party at a Howard Johnson hotel ballroom near

Fredericksburg, Virginia Fredericksburg is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,982. The Bureau of Economic Analysis of the United States Department of Commerce combines the city of Fredericksburg wi ...

, a fight on the dance floor began after the DJ played the song, during which 16-year-old Baron "Deuce" Braswell II, who played on the football team at Courtland High School in nearby Spotsylvania, was stabbed to death. The suspect in the stabbing was convicted of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in January 2007. In 2007, a fight broke out at an after-party hosted by the Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers. Police arrested two people who were not affiliated with Harvard for disorderly conduct. In 2009, ''Pitchfork'' Media named "Knuck If You Buck" at no. 381 in its list of best songs of the 2000s. ''

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

'' ranked "Knuck If You Buck" no. 16 in its 50-deep list "The Best Atlanta Rap Songs" in 2015. Two years earlier, ''Complex'' ranked the song no. 7 in its list "25 Rap Songs That Make Us Want To Punch Someone In the Face". In '' The Rap Year Book'', Meaghan Garvey considered "Knuck If You Buck" to be the most important song of 2004: "...its super-essentialized beat and evergreen 'I wish a bitch would' threats never go out of season".

Remixes, samples, and other uses

The official remix was released on Lil Scrappy's ''G's Up'' mixtape. It features verses by

Daz Dillinger Delmar Drew Arnaud (born May 25, 1973), known professionally as Daz Dillinger (formerly Dat Nigga Daz and commonly Daz), is an American rapper and record producer. In the 1990s at Death Row Records, aided the catapult of West Coast rap and ga ...

and

and new verses by the group. In 2015, the beat of this song was used for DLow's " Bet You Can't Do It Like Me" which reached No. 45 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The song received renewed attention throughout 2016. Before a rally for the Donald Trump presidential campaign at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois s ...

that eventually was cancelled on March 11, 2016, protesters were heard chanting "Fuck Donald Trump!" to the tune of the "Knuck If You Buck" chorus. "The Club", a first-season episode of the new TV series ''

'', used the song as background music during a scene at a nightclub. ''

The Wrap ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

'' reported that viewers criticized the subdued nature of clubgoers depicted when the song played. "

Juju on that Beat (TZ Anthem) "Juju on That Beat (TZ Anthem)" (also known simply as "Juju on That Beat", "Juju on the Beat" and "Juju on dat Beat") is a song by American hip hop duo Zay Hilfigerrr & Zayion McCall. The song was originally posted to McCall's YouTube channel on J ...

", a single by

Zay Hilfigerrr & Zayion McCall Zay Hilfigerrr & Zayion McCall are an American hip hop duo from Detroit, Michigan. They are best known for their song " Juju on That Beat", which peaked at number 5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The track was later included on McCall's debut mi ...

that peaked at No. 5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, sampled the beat of "Knuck If You Buck".

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

* {{authority control 2004 debut singles 2004 songs Crime Mob songs Lil Scrappy songs Reprise Records singles