"Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See" is a hip hop song recorded by American rapper

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after NFL and CFL wide receiver ...

. The single serves as the lead single from his second studio album '' When Disaster Strikes'' (1997) and its music video is notable for its homage to the 1988

Eddie Murphy Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...

film '' Coming to America''. The song contains a

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

of the 1976 recording "Sweet Green Fields" by American

soft rock Soft rock is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. S ...

duo Seals and Crofts. Rhymes scored a second consecutive nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance at the

40th Grammy Awards The 40th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 25, 1998, at Radio City Music Hall, New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Rock icon Bob Dylan, Alison Krauss & Union Station, and R. Kelly were the ...

Chart performance

Despite huge airplay, the song only peaked within the top forty on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 Airplay chart, where it peaked at number thirty-seven. It was most successful on its component Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, where it reached number two. It also charted outside the US, reaching the top 20 on the UK Singles Chart at number 16.

Reception and legacy

In 1999,

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

ranked the video itself at #20 for ''The 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made'' and

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...

ranked the song at #7 on their list of the 40 Greatest Hip Hop Songs of the 90s. In retrespect, 2Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See2 is viewed as a classic and one of the best hip hop songs of all time.

Music video

The official music video for the song, directed by Hype Williams and designed by Ron Norsworthy, is based on

's 1988 film '' Coming to America''. According to Busta Rhymes, the inspiration for this idea was the fact that ''Coming to America'' was playing on the television in the studio at the time he and the production crew were working on mixing the record. The film is about an African living in New York City and Busta Rhymes felt that the record had an African sound to it. At the

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

is a well choreographed dance routine which is followed by Busta running from an elephant and him, along with The Flipmode Squad, in glowing tribal African makeup and outfit. The video received heavy rotation on both the

and BET networks. The video was filmed at

Chambers Chambers may refer to: Places Canada: * Chambers Township, Ontario United States: * Chambers County, Alabama *Chambers, Arizona, an unincorporated community in Apache County *Chambers, Nebraska * Chambers, West Virginia *Chambers Township, Holt ...

and Centre Street in Downtown Manhattan — including the main lobby of the Surrogate's Courthouse.

Awards and nominations

"Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See" earned Rhymes his second nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance at the

. The award went to " Men in Black" by Will Smith. The music video earned four nominations including Best Male Video and

Best Rap Video The MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video was first given out in 1989, and it was one of the four original genre categories added at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. This award was last given out in 2006, as MTV did not bring it back in 2008 lik ...

at the 1998 MTV VMAs. It lost both to Will Smith, respectively, for " Just the Two of Us" and "

Gettin' Jiggy wit It "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" is a song by American rapper and actor Will Smith, released as the third single from his debut solo album, ''Big Willie Style'' (1997). The verse is based around a sample of "He's the Greatest Dancer" by Sister Sledge, an ...

In other media

This song was also featured on video games '' True Crime: New York City'', '' Def Jam Rapstar'', ''

DJ Hero 2 ''DJ Hero 2'' is a rhythm video game and a sequel to ''DJ Hero'', a spinoff of the ''Guitar Hero'' series. ''DJ Hero 2'' uses a special turntable-controller, the same as introduced in ''DJ Hero'', to simulate turntablism, the act of creating a n ...

'' and ''

NBA 2K18 ''NBA 2K18'' is a 2017 basketball simulation video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports. It is the 19th installment in the ''NBA 2K'' franchise, the successor to ''NBA 2K17'', and the predecessor to ''NBA 2K19''. It was r ...

''.

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1997 singles 1997 songs Busta Rhymes songs Songs written by James Seals Elektra Records singles Music videos directed by Hype Williams