"Ooh Wee" is the debut single by British record producer Mark Ronson featuring guest vocals by American rappers Ghostface Killah, Nate Dogg, Trife and Saigon. It was released as the lead single from Ronson's debut studio album, Here Comes the Fuzz, on 20 October 2003. It charted at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart, and caused Ronson to return to the UK after many years of living in the United States.
Background
"Ooh Wee" was released as Ronson's debut single, from his album Here Comes the Fuzz. It features Ghostface Killah, Nate Dogg, Trife and Saigon. The record was produced in New York, where Ronson was living at the time. The song samples "Scorpio" by Dennis Coffey and "Sunny" by Boney M;[1] in an interview with Rolling Stone, Ronson stated that he decided to sample the song after hearing it in the film Boogie Nights, and listening to the end of the film to the credits after discovering that the record wasn't on the film's soundtrack.[2]
On episode 2 of the Apple TV series "Watch with Sound with Mark Ronson", on Sampling, Ronson tells the story of how he owns "minus 25% of the song" because Boney M took 100% of the publishing because he sampled them, and then Dennis Coffey, whose drum break is sampled, demanded another 25%. He apparently didn't care that Boney M had already taken 100%.
The record was made only thinking of giving it to Ghostface Killah. Ronson's manager contacted Killah, who had previously been acquainted with each other. However, once Killah had added his part, he thought having an extra voice would complement the record, so he contacted the head of his label to see if he could get Nate Dogg on the record. After sending Dogg the record, it took him less than 24 hours to return it with his part recorded.[3]
Music video
A music video for the song was created. It features all four rappers and Ronson miming to the original track. For it, Ronson had the back of his shaved in such a manner that the words "Here Comes the Fuzz" appear on his head; a shot of this begins the video. During his 4Music #Hangout, he explained that the barber who cut his hair that day only spoke English and could not read or write it, and so to him he was in fact carving a picture in to the back of Ronson's head.[4]
Critical reception
The Guardian described it as "fizzy disco-rap ... informed by the freewheeling, celebratory spirit of late 80s hip-hop".[5]
As of 2019, the song was featured in various Domino’s Pizza adverts in the UK.
It was featured in the official trailer for the 2019 movie Spies in Disguise.
In 2021, the song was used on a UK advert for McDonald's,[7] and the following year it was used in an advert for Carolina Herrera New York: Bad Boy Cobalt.[8]
