"What You Know" is a Grammy Award-winning hip hop song by Southern hip hop recording artist T.I., released as the lead single from his fourth studio album King (2006). The song peaked at number three in the US and was certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA following shipment in excess of 2,000,000 copies.
The song is produced by T.I.'s frequent collaborator DJ Toomp, from Zone Boy Productions, with additional keys by Wonder Arillo. It utilizes an interpolation of Roberta Flack's version of The Impressions's "Gone Away" and of the song "Hey Joe", written by Billy Roberts but popularized by Jimi Hendrix.
The song is in E♭ minor. The melody line is G♭, B♭, E♭, B♭-D♭-B♭-A♭-G♭-E♭-A♭-G♭-E♭-D♭-D♭-E♭-B♭-D♭-A♭-B♭-G♭-A♭, E♭.
American rappers Juelz Santana and J.R Writer, of Dipset, recorded a remix of this song entitled "What You Know (About That Crack)". American rapper Papoose recorded a freestyle over the song entitled "What You Know (About Pap)". American rapper Lil Wayne also recorded a remix of "What You Know", which can be found on his mixtape Dedication 2.
The song was used in promotion of the film ATL, in which T.I. stars.
Japanese professional wrestler KENTA used an instrumental of the song as his entrance theme.
The song is played at Target Field whenever All-Star Joe Mauer comes to bat. Mauer has won three batting titles and an 2009 MVP Award while having "What You Know" as his music. The year he changed the song, 2007, he failed to win a batting title and switched back in 2008 to "What You Know" and has won back-to-back titles since.
The song was used as the entrance song for Kendall Grove at UFC 101.
The song was used at Turner Field whenever Edgar Rentería came up to bat during the 2006 season.
The song is used at the beginning of Rich Turpin's "Whatcha Know?" segment on BT Sports Radio.
Awards and accolades
"What You Know" won for "Best Rap Solo Performance" and was nominated for "Best Rap Song" at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards.
"What You Know" was performed at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, where its music video was nominated for two awards.
VIBE named T.I.'s "What You Know" as the Top Song of 2006. It was also ranked fourth on a similar list by Rolling Stone [1], and was #1 in Muchmusic's Top HipHop 2006 List.
Pitchfork Media ranked "What You Know" #3 on their "Top Tracks of 2006" list, while T.I.'s collaboration on Justin Timberlake's song "My Love" was ranked #1.
The song is one of the most critically acclaimed of 2006 (arguably T.I.'s most critically acclaimed song), and is one of T.I.'s most successful. It has garnered a 5-star rating from Pitchfork Media. The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, and it also topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It is ranked the 338th best song of all time, 8th of 2006, and 42nd of the 2000s decade by Acclaimedmusic.net.
In 2008, it was ranked number 68 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.
In 2007, "What You Know" was named the second-best single of 2006 on The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop annual critics' poll, after Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy".
