"Pants on the Ground" is a

novelty song A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and w ...

, which became the first single that

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

"General"

Larry Platt "General" Larry Platt (born August 27, 1947) is an American civil and political rights activist and rapper who gained fame with his performance of " Pants on the Ground" on the ninth season of ''American Idol''. The song was released on iTunes and ...

co-wrote. It was released via American King Music on February 4, 2010. The song is meant to be a

protest song A protest song is a song that is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of ''topical'' songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre. Among social mov ...

about the practice of wearing sagging pants. The song became an

internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

after being performed during the

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 498,715 ...

audition for ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

'', which aired on January 13, 2010.

Production

The song was first performed in 2001 by "General" Larry Platt in the streets of

during many campaigns for elected municipal officials across the city, and he had professionally recorded it as early as 2002. The "General" was also known for performing the song publicly in events and functions around Atlanta, including a live performance at the

Sweet Auburn Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, ...

Heritage Festival Heritage Festival refers to one of about 100 music festivals held throughout the United States where middle school and high school-aged musical ensembles are adjudicated on a national standard. These groups include choirs, bands, and orchestra ...

in October 2009, and

Centennial Olympic Park Centennial Olympic Park is a public park located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, owned and operated by the Georgia World Congress Center Authority. It was built by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) as part of the infrastructu ...

in 2008. Platt was encouraged to perform the song during the ninth ''American Idol'' season auditions, by

Sally Harley. After he performed the song in response to her encouragement, it gained popularity as a viral hit. Platt's former manager Jason Mills, released the studio version of the song, without Platt's consent. The single version of the song was released on February 4, 2010, by American King Music for

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

download where the song has reportedly sold more than 260,000 downloads. Platt was offered deals by several labels, including Melee Entertainment and Jake Records. Others entered negotiations with Larry Platt to produce a single of the hit song, but due to the unauthorized distribution of the song by American King Music, it was difficult to navigate. It was reported that Platt's former manager intended to promote the song, servicing radio stations to gain exposure, which is a common music industry practice. Platt later secured new management under a firm based in Atlanta, headed up by Earl Little. In 2010, ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' claimed "Pants on the Ground" sounded similar to "

Pumps and a Bump "Pumps and a Bump" is a song by Hammer from his 1994 album ''The Funky Headhunter''. The single peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart and No. 26 on the Hot 100, making it the final Top 40 hit of Hammer's career. Release and recep ...

" by

MC Hammer Stanley Kirk Burrell (born March 30, 1962), better known by his stage name MC Hammer (or simply Hammer), is an American rapper, dancer, record producer and entrepreneur. He is known for hit songs such as "U Can't Touch This", "2 Legit 2 Quit" ...

Track listing

#"Pants on the Ground" (single version) – 3:29

Chart performances

Live performances

Platt performed the song outside of the

2010 Grammy Awards The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares Pe ...

ceremony. The song was performed at the ''

'' finale by Platt, accompanied by

William Hung William Hing Cheung Hung (; born January 13, 1983) is a Hong Kong motivational speaker and former singer who gained fame in 2004 as a result of his unsuccessful audition singing Ricky Martin's hit song "She Bangs" on the third season of the ...

, and a crew of dancers who dropped their pants as part of the act. During some concerts, Florida-based Christian rock band

Among the Thirsty Among the Thirsty is an American contemporary Christian music and worship band based out of Clearwater, Florida. Formed in 2005, their members include lead vocalist and acoustic guitarist, Ryan Daniel, guitarist and background vocalist, Brian Sc ...

, performs a verse from "Pants on the Ground" during the song "One Sound." The song returned to ''American Idol'' on April 7, 2016 (for a short moment during the series finale), as an interjection performance while " No" by

Meghan Trainor Meghan Elizabeth Trainor (born December 22, 1993) is an American singer-songwriter and television personality. She rose to prominence after signing with Epic Records in 2014 and releasing her debut single "All About That Bass", which reached ...

was sung by other ''American Idol'' alumni.

Parodies

Several celebrities performed the song, in the days that followed the original airing of Platt's audition. This included late night talk show host

Jimmy Fallon James Thomas Fallon (born September 19, 1974) is an American comedian, television host, actor, and writer. He is known for his work in television as a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' and as the host of the late-night talk show ''The Ton ...

, who performed a version of the song while also impersonating

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

on his show ''

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by comedian Jimmy Fallon. About pag ...

''.

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

quarterback and

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

legend,

Brett Favre Brett Lorenzo Favre ( ; born October 10, 1969) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons, primarily with the Green Bay Packers. Favre had 321 consecutive starts from 1992 to 20 ...

, was also caught leading the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

in a performance of the song in their locker room (following their game against the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

in the

2009–10 NFL playoffs The National Football League playoffs for the 2009 season began on January 9, 2010. The postseason tournament concluded with the New Orleans Saints defeating the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV, 31–17, on February 7, at Sun Life Stadium i ...

). ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...

'' hosts

Meredith Vieira Meredith Louise Vieira (born December 30, 1953) is an American broadcast journalist and television personality. She is best known as the original moderator of the daytime talk show '' The View'' (1997–2006), the original host of the syndicated ...

Matt Lauer Matthew Todd Lauer (; born December 30, 1957) is an American former television news personality, best known for his work with NBC News. After serving as a local news personality in New York City on WNBC, his first national exposure was as the ne ...

Al Roker Albert Lincoln Roker Jr. (born August 20, 1954) is an American weather presenter, journalist, television personality, and author. He is the current weather anchor on NBC's ''Today'', and occasionally co-hosts '' 3rd Hour Today''. He has an ina ...

and

Ann Curry Ann Curry (born November 19, 1956) is an American journalist and photojournalist, who has been a reporter for more than 30 years, focused on human suffering in war zones and natural disasters. Curry has reported from the wars in Kosovo, Iraq, S ...

also organized a performance of the song. Additionally, Canadian MLA

T. J. Burke Thomas Jack "T.J." Burke King's Counsel, KC (born 1972) is a New Brunswick lawyer and former politician. Burke made history when he was elected becoming the first Aboriginal peoples in Canada, member of Aboriginal heritage elected to a legislatu ...

performed a rendition of the song in criticizing Progressive Conservative opposition leader

David Alward David Nathan Alward (born December 2, 1959) is a Canadian politician, who served as the 32nd premier of New Brunswick, 2010 to 2014. Alward has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick since 1999 and has been the leader of the P ...

, during a session of the

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

provincial legislature. Platt himself made a subsequent appearance on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's '' The View'' on January 18, 2010 (where he performed the song in its entirety). "Pants on the Ground" was also sung during

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

's 2010

Royal Rumble The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle roya ...

PPV event, in a backstage segment between

Theodore Long Theodore Robert Rufus Long (born September 15, 1947) is an American former professional referee and manager known for his work for WWE and WCW serving as an on-screen authority figure. Long began his career in the National Wrestling Alliance and ...

Cryme Tyme Cryme Tyme was an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of JTG and Shad Gaspard, best known for their tenure in WWE. The team was an over-the-top parody of stereotypical street thugs. The tag team first disbanded in 2010, though r ...

Ranjin Singh David "Dave" Kapoor (born November 17, 1975) is an Indian-American writer and former professional wrestling manager, better known by his ring name, Ranjin Singh. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he worked on the writing team as the se ...

and

The Great Khali Dalip Singh Rana (born 27 August 1972) is an Indian professional wrestler and wrestling promoter better known by his ring name The Great Khali. He is best known for his tenure in WWE where he became the first Indian-born WWE World Heavywe ...

Tyler Perry Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry Jr., September 13, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and playwright. He is the creator and performer of the Madea character, a tough elderly woman. Perry's films vary in style from orthodox filmmak ...

as his character

Mabel "Madea" Simmons Mabel "Madea" Earlene Simmons (née Baker/Murphy) is a character created and portrayed by Tyler Perry. She is portrayed as a tough, street-smart elderly African-American woman. Madea is based on Perry's mother and his aunt. In Perry's own words ...

, performed the Madea remix to this song in the play ''

Madea's Big Happy Family ''Madea's Big Happy Family'' is a 2010 American stage play created, produced, written, and directed by Tyler Perry. It stars Tyler Perry as Mabel "Madea" Simmons and Cassi Davis as Aunt Bam. The play also marks the debut appearance of Aunt Bam ...

'', which he had written for the stage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pants On The Ground 2010 debut singles Internet memes Viral videos Novelty songs Protest songs Clothing controversies African-American-related controversies 2010 songs