The Ying Yang Twins are an American hip hop duo consisting of Kaine (born Eric Jackson on December 16, 1978) and D-Roc (born Deongelo Holmes on February 23, 1979). Despite the name, the duo are not twins, brothers or related in any way.
They debuted in 2000 and rose to mainstream popularity in 2003 collaborating with
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Cultural impact of Brit ...
on her album ''
In the Zone'' (2003) and with
Lil Jon
Jonathan H. Smith (born January 17, 1971), better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American rapper, DJ, and record producer. Regarded as a progenitor of the club-oriented hip-hop subgenre crunk, his production and voice presence were inst ...
on "
Get Low". In 2004 and 2005, the Ying Yang Twins became more popular with party singles "
Salt Shaker", "
Wait (The Whisper Song)
"Wait (The Whisper Song)" is a song by American crunk duo Ying Yang Twins, It was released on March 1, 2005, as the lead single from their fourth studio album, '' U.S.A. (United State of Atlanta)'' (2005). The song consists of a minimal bass pul ...
", "
Shake" and "
Badd". They have received recognition for their song "Halftime (featuring Homebwoi)" which is played at
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...
homegames after most touchdowns. In 2008, the hip hop duo released ''
The Official Work'' mixtape. In 2009, they followed with their ''
Ying Yang Forever'' mixtape. Just three months later, the duo released ''Legendary Status: Ying Yang Twins Greatest Hits''. In 2013, the Ying Yang Twins released the ''Ass in Session'' and ''Twurk or Die'' mixtapes.
Career
Their debut single "
Whistle While You Twurk" was played on urban and pop radio stations and peaked at #17 on the
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...
chart. They toured with Juz tha King, Kat Nu and Demo Dil. Their full-length debut album ''
Thug Walkin was released that year.
Immediately after discovering fellow Atlanta hip hop artist
Lil Jon
Jonathan H. Smith (born January 17, 1971), better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American rapper, DJ, and record producer. Regarded as a progenitor of the club-oriented hip-hop subgenre crunk, his production and voice presence were inst ...
,
A&R Bryan Leach began talks with representative
Mr. Collipark about signing them to
TVT Records. Protracted negotiations meant that a deal was not finalized in time for the label to release their next album ''
Alley: The Return of the Ying Yang Twins'', which instead appeared in 2002 on
Koch Records.
The album was successful among hip-hop fans in the
Southern United States
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...
. The same year, the group appeared on the album ''
Kings of Crunk'' by Lil Jon on the single "
Get Low", and the song was a huge club and radio hit. As Crooms had negotiated only a one-album deal with Koch, the duo was free to finally submit to the advances of TVT, who had impressed them with their recent work with Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz.
''
Me & My Brother'', their first album for TVT, was
certified platinum on April 12, 2005, and yielded three more hits — "
What's Happenin!", "
Naggin'" and the Lil Jon collaboration "
Salt Shaker". The same year the duo appeared on
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Cultural impact of Brit ...
' album ''
In the Zone'' on the song "I Got That (Boom Boom)" and her television special of the same name.
In 2004, TVT released ''
My Brother & Me'', an album composed largely of remixes which featured a bonus DVD of the group's videos.
A new album ''
U.S.A. (United State of Atlanta)'' appeared in Summer 2005 as its singles "
Wait (The Whisper Song)
"Wait (The Whisper Song)" is a song by American crunk duo Ying Yang Twins, It was released on March 1, 2005, as the lead single from their fourth studio album, '' U.S.A. (United State of Atlanta)'' (2005). The song consists of a minimal bass pul ...
", "
Badd", and "
Shake" were dominating popular music and rap radio stations,
and ''
U.S.A. Still United'', a collection of
outtakes, remixes, and collaborations similar to ''My Brother & Me'' followed in December 2005. It, too, was accompanied by a DVD featuring music videos and other footage from the ''U.S. (United State of Atlanta)'' period.
In 2005, D-Roc and his younger brothers, Mr. Ball, and Da Birthday Boy, formed the group Da Muzicianz and released their first single "Camera Phone". Their self-titled album was released on February 28, 2006.
The group's fifth album ''
Chemically Imbalanced'' was released in November 2006. For this album, the Twins collaborated with producers
Wyclef Jean
Nel Ust Wyclef Jean ( ; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper, singer, and record producer. Born in Haiti, Jean emigrated to the Northeastern United States, United States as a child. He gained fame as a founding member of the Fugees, a Ne ...
and Keith Duplessis in addition to Mr. Collipark, who produced a majority of the songs on the group's previous album. The first two singles were the
Hall & Oates-sampling "
Dangerous", featuring Wyclef Jean, and "Jigglin'". In 2008, the Twins released the mixtape ''
The Official Work'' and a promo single titled "Drop". A highlight of the Ying Yang Twins' tour includes a visit to the Epsilon Mu chapter of
Sigma Chi. Here they performed all their hits live in front of a sold out Texas crowd. All of the proceeds from the show went to charity. In 2009, the Twins released their latest album with Deep Records, ''
Ying Yang Forever'', and started a tour titled "Ying Yang Forever Tour".
Their song "Halftime (Stand Up and Get Crunk)" is now a standard in many
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
football stadiums, and it is considered to be the unofficial anthem of the New Orleans Saints during their
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
victory season, but it has been a staple at Saints games since 2006. This song was performed live during the victory parade. The song has also been used in ''
NFL Street 2'' and ''
Madden NFL 11'' as well as the
opening tip at home games for the
National Basketball Association's San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...
throughout the majority of the 2000s.
On November 3, 2009, Ying Yang Twins released their greatest hits album via The Orchard and BOOTY Records. The album includes "What's Happenin!", "Shake", "Salt Shaker", and "Wait (The Whisper Song)" plus three new tracks.
On June 29, 2012, Ying Yang Twins revealed on Twitter that they had signed to
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...
and released their first single from their untitled album "Fist Pump, Jump Jump", featuring singer Greg Tecoz.
The Ying Yang Twins were a featured act on the 2019 Millenium Tour, with
B2K,
Chingy and others.
Their Christmas song "Deck Da' Club" featured heavily in the 2019 Christmas show of ''The Unbelievers Podcast''.
Discography
Studio albums
*''
Thug Walkin''' (2000)
*''
Alley: The Return of the Ying Yang Twins'' (2002)
*''
Me & My Brother'' (2003)
*''
U.S.A. (United State of Atlanta)'' (2005)
*''
Chemically Imbalanced'' (2006)
*''
Ying Yang Forever'' (2009)
*''All Around the World'' (with DJ Teddy-O) (2012)
As featured artist
Filmography
*''
Soul Plane'' (2004)
References
External links
*
Ying Yang Twinson
Myspace
Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ying Yang Twins
African-American musical duos
American crunk groups
African-American male rappers
Musical duos from Georgia (U.S. state)
American hip-hop duos
Musical groups established in 1997
Musical groups from Atlanta
Rappers from Atlanta
Southern hip-hop groups
TVT Records artists
Universal Records artists
1997 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)