"Ooouuu" (stylized in

all caps In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in ...

) is a song by American rapper

Young M.A Katorah Kasanova Marrero (born April 3, 1992), better known by her stage name Young M.A (acronym for Young Me. Always), is an American rapper. She first gained widespread recognition with the release of the quadruple-platinum hit single " Ooouuu ...

. The song was produced by U-Dub (of NY Bangers). It was released as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

on May 12, 2016.

Background

In an interview with

Genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for future works, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...

, Young M.A spoke on the creation process behind the song:

When I first heard the beat and wrote to it, I said to myself, "This is one of those records where I just wanna relax." There's not too much thinking about the bars or the punchlines, I needed a feel good record. I didn’t have one of those yet, I was putting so much work into my pen. This is a record where I just wanted to be cool on the track. I'm chill, I'm humble a lot, I needed one of those records. When I went to record the track, I wanted to be drunk while I recorded it. I was really smizz and drizz when I recorded the record so it feels authentic. When I recorded the track I wasn't going to put it out just yet because I had just released Sleep Walkin and I had a lot of records on there I wanted to do videos for. But something one day just told me that I needed to put this out—nobody told me, just one day I thought this would take me to the next level. I didn't want some big push behind it, I was just like this is a record I just wanna put out. From there, I guess it was catchy and it was different from me.

Critical reception

"Ooouuu" was placed at number 11 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''’s "50 Best Songs of 2016" list. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' ranked "Ooouuu" at number 16 on their "100 Best Pop Songs of 2016" list. ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' listed "Ooouuu" on their ranking of the 100 best songs of 2016 at number 67. In the annual ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

'''s

Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...

mass critics poll of the year's best in music in 2016, "Ooouuu" was ranked at number 24.

In other media

* The song was sampled by

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

for the opening track " The Ringer" on ''

Kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

''. * A character extensively pantomimes the song at a sleepover during the "HBD" episode of ''

High Maintenance ''High Maintenance'' is an American Anthology series, anthology comedy-drama television show, television and web series, web series created by ex-husband and wife team Ben Sinclair (actor), Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld. The show follows The ...

Music video

On May 12, 2016, Young M.A released the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Ooouuu" on her

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, 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 ...

account, the same day as the release to the song. Since the video was posted, the video surpassed over 400 million views.

Remixes

The official

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

to "Ooouuu", released on September 30, 2016, features a new opening

verse Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry * Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...

by fellow

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

rapper

50 Cent Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced ...

. In addition, "Ooouuu" was unofficially remixed several times by various American rappers, such as

Remy Ma Reminisce Mackie ( Smith; born May 30, 1980), known professionally as Remy Ma, is an American rapper. Discovered by Big Pun, she came to prominence for her work as a member of Fat Joe's group, Terror Squad. In 2006, she released her debut stu ...

French Montana Karim Kharbouch (Arabic: æɾiːm χɑɾbuːʃ born November 9, 1984), better known by his stage name French Montana, is a Moroccan-American rapper. Born and raised in Morocco, he emigrated to the United States with his family when he was 13. ...

ASAP Ferg Darold Durard Brown Ferguson Jr. (born October 20, 1988), known professionally as ASAP Ferg (stylized as A$AP Ferg), is an American rapper from New York City's Harlem neighborhood. Aside from his solo career, he is a member of the hip hop collec ...

Jadakiss Jason Terrance Phillips (born May 27, 1975), better known by his stage name Jadakiss, is an American rapper from Yonkers, New York. He began his career in the 1990s as a member of the rap trio The Lox, managed by Ruff Ryders and signed with Bad ...

Meek Mill Robert Rihmeek Williams (born May 6, 1987), known professionally as Meek Mill, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he embarked on his music career as a battle rapper, and later formed a short-lived rap group, ...

Beanie Sigel Dwight Equan Grant (born March 6, 1974), better known by his stage name Beanie Sigel, is an American rapper from South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He first became known for his association with Jay-Z and Roc-A-Fella Records, releasing his debut ...

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated flow in her rapping, alter egos and accent ...

, and The Game, among others.

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

Lyrics of this song at Genius
{{Authority control 2016 singles 2016 songs American hip hop songs East Coast hip hop songs Trap music songs