B-side "Yeah Yeah Yeah" Format 12"
CD Length 4:07 | Released June 8, 2004 Recorded 2003 | |
Genre East Coast hip hop
gangsta rap | ||
"Lean Back" is a song by American hip hop group Terror Squad. It was released as the second single from their second studio album, True Story, on June 8, 2004. An uptempo hip hop song built for the club environment, it features Fat Joe with Remy Ma handling the second verse. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks from August 21, 2004 and topped the R&B charts for more than a month. The song appeared in the video games Need For Speed Underground 2, Def Jam Rapstar and The Hip Hop Dance Experience.
Contents
Music video
Jessy Terrero and Raul Conde directed the music video and filmed it at a mansion at Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. Fat Joe described the dance in the video as throwing back the right shoulder to the beat of the song. The video features cameos from DJ Khaled, N.O.R.E., Kevin Hart, and Lil Jon, as well as the production-duo Cool & Dre.
Critical reception
Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic called the song "a perfect club-ready duet between Joe and Remy Ma that boasts a trademark Scott Storch beat and a memorable singalong hook and dance-along step". Vibe called the song a "summer classic". In 2008, VH1 ranked "Lean Back" at number 55 in its "100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs" list.
Remixes
The official remixed version of the song, featuring Lil Jon, Eminem, and Mase is available on Fat Joe's 2005 album All or Nothing and Lil Jon's Crunk Juice remix disc. The official remix is more uptempo and contains a new beat with a crunkâlike feel to it. However, there are two different versions of the remix. The All or Nothing version, the main remix, features an additional verse by Remy Ma and was released in July 2004. The Crunk Juice version features Lil Jon's vocals throughout the song, omitting Remy Ma's verse. On both versions, Mase's verse is in line with his then-clean style of rapping (as heard on Welcome Back).
Fat Joe also released a remix in tribute to his Puerto Rican ancestry, featuring Tego Calderon and Tony Touch.
Other remixes of the song are performed by Chamillionaire, in The Mixtape Messiah titled "Body Rock", Lil Wayne, Max B, Jadakiss, U.S.D.A., and G-Unit. Also, mashup artist Girl Talk layered "Lean Back" over Spacehog's "In the Meantime" in his album All Day. Houston rapper Lil' Flip did a freestyle over the song as a diss towards Atlanta rapper T.I..