"21 Seconds" is a song by

UK garage UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop, R&B, and jungle. It ...

crew So Solid Crew. Released as the second single from their debut album, '' They Don't Know'' (2001), it was the first of five consecutive top-20 hit singles for the group, topping the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in August 2001, and peaked just outside the top 40 in the Netherlands. In the United Kingdom, it sold 118,135 units in its first week. In September 2019, ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' included the song in their "25 essential UK garage anthems" list.

Composition and production

The song uses fairly stripped back production, utilising a 2-step rhythm which was common in

at the time.

Lisa Maffia Lisa Maffia (born 16 June 1979) is a British singer-songwriter, musician, rapper, actress, fashion designer, model and presenter, who originally came to the public's attention as the main female member of So Solid Crew. Whilst in So Solid Crew, ...

's young daughter, Chelsea, can be heard at the beginning of the track, saying "Ha, ha, ha, whatcha laughin at?" The song title alludes to the approximate 21 seconds that each of the band members is given to perform their rap. 21 seconds is arrived at as the song's tempo is approximately 140BPM and each rapper has 12 bars of 4 beats (48 beats at 140BPM, when worked out to the nearest integer, rounds to 21 seconds). Megaman said the crew created the track after their label told them to make a track lasting three and a half minutes. He said "so we worked out that with at least 10 or 11 members, that's eight bars each – 21 seconds. It was a simple calculation." Their label manager Shabs Jobanputra said "they literally took a calculator and divided the time by the number of MCs."

Music video

The music video received the award for

British Video of the Year The Brit Award for British Video of the Year was an award given by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), an organisation which represents record companies and artists in the United Kingdom. The accolade is presented at the Brit Awards, an annua ...

at the

2002 Brit Awards Brit Awards 2002 was the 22nd edition of the Brit Awards, an annual pop music awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. It was organised by the British Phonographic Industry and took place on 20 February 2002 at Earls Court in London. first present ...

Commercial performance

"21 Seconds" was the first

track to reach number one on the UK Official Chart, selling 118,135 copies in its opening week and becoming 2001's 19th best-selling single. Its total sales reached 423,000.

Critical reception

In a 2002 review,

Pete Paphides Peter Paphides (born 1969 as Panayiotakis Paphides or Panayiotis Paphides) is a British journalist and broadcaster. Early life Paphides was born in Birmingham to a Greek Cypriot father, Chris, and a Greek mother, Victoria. He has an elder broth ...

in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' said the track was "a brilliant idea" but that "not a single member of the collective uses their time to say anything remotely insightful." In a 2020 retrospective review of the single, ''

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quietu ...

'' said the track "managed to capture the excitement of clubs and

pirate radio Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially ...

, with MCs frantically passing the mic as they try to outdo each other in lyrical prowess, creative aggression bubbling beneath the surface." The same year, ''The Guardian'' placed the song at number 48 on their list of "The 100 Greatest UK No 1 Singles".

Track listings

UK CD single # "21 Seconds" (original So Solid version) # "21 Seconds" (12-inch version) # "21 Seconds" (DJ Swiss & Dan Da Man remix vocal) # "21 Seconds" (video) UK 12-inch single :A1. "21 Seconds" (original So Solid version) :A2. "21 Seconds" (12-inch version) :B1. "21 Seconds" (DJ Swiss & Dan Da Man remix vocal) :B2. "21 Seconds" (DJ Swiss & Dan Da Man remix instrumental) UK cassette single # "21 Seconds" (original So Solid version) # "21 Seconds" (12-inch version) European CD1 # "21 Seconds" (Seven Gemini remix) # "21 Seconds" (radio edit) – 3:54 European CD2 # "21 Seconds" (Seven Gemini remix) # "21 Seconds" (Seven Gemini remix instrumental) # "21 Seconds" (radio edit) # "21 Seconds" (Seven Gemini remix video)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Other versions

Romeo reworked "21 Seconds" for car insurance firm

Confused.com Confused.com is a UK based financial services comparison platform specialising in comparison of insurance and financial services, including car insurance, home insurance, energy, van insurance and life insurance. Confused.com's platform include ...

in 2013. The same year, Preditah reworked the track. On 6 September 2019 So Solid Crew went to the Red Bull Music Studios, London, and remixed "21 Seconds" with

Toddla T Thomas Mackenzie Bell (born 22 February 1985), better known by the stage name of Toddla T, is an English DJ, record producer, remixer and songwriter from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Biography Bell was raised in Sheffield where he attended Ki ...

. They were joined by

D Double E Darren Dixon (born 19 January 1980), known professionally as D Double E, is a British grime MC, DJ and record producer from Forest Gate, East London. He performs both as a solo artist and as a member of the grime duo Newham Generals. Career D ...

Ms Banks Thyra Kigho Deshaun Oji, better known by her stage name Ms Banks, is a British rapper, singer and songwriter from Camberwell, London. Oji has released three mixtapes as Ms Banks. In 2014, she released her first mixtape titled ''Once Upon a Grind ...

and

DJ Q Shollen Quarshie (born 1985), known by his stage name DJ Q, is a DJ and record producer from Huddersfield, England. He forms part of the group TQD alongside Flava D and Royal-T. Early life DJ Q’s musical journey started from a young age at ...

as they added new verses. In 2019,

DJ Spoony DJ Spoony (born Johnathan Joseph; 25 June 1970) is a British DJ and radio presenter. He is a member of the UK garage production trio, the Dreem Teem. Early career Dj Spoony was born in Hackney, East London to British West Indian parents. His ...

together with Katie Chatburn and the Ignition Orchestra featuring So Solid Crew recorded an orchestral version of the song for the UK garage covers album ''

Garage Classical ''Garage Classical'' is a compilation album by British disc jockey DJ Spoony with Katie Chatburn and the Ignition Orchestra, released on 18 October 2019, on the Since 93 label. The album contains orchestral covers of classic UK garage tracks an ...

''. Manchester rapper

Aitch H, or h, is the eighth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''aitch'' (pronounced , plural ''aitches''), or regio ...

covered the track in 2020.

References

{{Authority control 2001 songs 2001 singles So Solid Crew songs Relentless Records singles UK Singles Chart number-one singles