If you lived through the popularity of the following Millennial anthems with your sanity intact, you deserve a Purple Heart. Or whatever the pop cultural equivalent would be. Because these three songs were as much club bangers as they were utterly confusing. Here, we’re revisiting the singles that hyped us up in an era of hedonistic party anthems and mainstream recession pop hits.
“Like a G6” by Far East Movement
“Like a G6” exploded onto the airwaves and the charts in April 2010, carving a place for itself in the pop cultural zeitgeist of a new decade. It hit several milestones in its time, like topping the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, a first for an Asian-American group at the time. Production duo The Cataracs were on the single alongside Far East Movement, with the hook and vocals sampled from “Booty Bounce” by Dev.
But all these years later, “Like a G6” remains a confusing Millennial anthem for all its relatively transparent lyrics. On the surface, it’s a pretty cut-and-dry club banger about drinking and partying. But one mystery persists: What does “gettin’ slizard” actually mean? According to a Genius annotation from 12 years ago, “slizard” stands for “sexy lizard”. That doesn’t seem right in context. But it was endorsed by Far East Movement, so who are we to argue?
“The Way I Are” by Timbaland and Keri Hilson
“The Way I Are” appeared on Timbaland’s 2007 album Shock Value, which, overall, featured some unusual collaborations. The Keri Hilson vocal feature definitely elevated this single to anthem status, however. But while the response to “The Way I Are” was generally positive, something about it has always seemed a little off.
It’s not the role-reversed lyrics with the man flat broke and the woman joking that he can strip for her to earn a buck. And it’s not the surprising yet delightful narrative that has the two falling into a sexy relationship despite opposing tax brackets. It has everything to do with the deliberate choice to title the song “The Way I Are”. Also, to write the lyrics “Can you handle me the way I’m are”. This strange twist of grammar was most likely for rhyming purposes, but you have to admit it’s still weird.
“Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO
The LMFAO era is often ignored purely out of necessity by those who lived through it. But like it or not, they were still instrumental in defining a style of club-ready pop music in the 2010s. “Party Rock Anthem”, unleashed upon the masses in January 2011, brought obnoxiousness to the mainstream.
It’s not the greatest song that came out that year, but it hooked listeners like a party drug. “Party Rock Anthem” seemed like it was everywhere, all the time, for way longer than it should have been. And that made no sense then, and it’s still confusing now. But if there’s anything 2011 is going to be remembered for, it might as well be for Party Rocking.
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