"Twerk" is a song by American hip hop duo
City Girls featuring American rapper
Cardi B, from the duo's debut album Girl Code (2018). It was released to US
rhythmic contemporary radio on January 8, 2019, as the album's lead single.[1] Filmed in
Miami, the song's music video was released the same month. "Twerk" is a New Orleans
bounce-inspired song, which heavily samples
Choppa's "Choppa Style".[2] It also samples the popular
Triggerman beat, which is prominent among the New Orleans
bounce scene. It peaked at number 29 on the US
Billboard Hot 100 chart and was certified
Platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Production
"Twerk" employs a xylophone sounding melody, hand claps and "feverish" snares.[3] In her verse, Cardi references
Jermaine Dupri's "
Money Ain't a Thang".[4]
Music video
Directed by
Daps and Sara Lacombe, the music video was filmed in
Miami, Florida in December 2018 and released on January 16, 2019. The video shows Cardi B and Yung Miami
painted like a tiger and zebra, respectively, partying with a number of women on a
yacht. In another location, at a construction site, they are joined by the top 20 finalists of the challenge sent by the City Girls, which consisted on finding "the world's greatest twerker." The clip closes with the winner of the challenge.[5]
Reception
In Billboard Carl Lamarre opined, "the titillating video reaches its climax when the women hit the dirt and break into some next-level twerking. The mesermizing display will certainly drop some jaws, as both Cardi and Yung Miami redefine the meaning of twerk with their fun-filled visual."[6]Complex's Sarah Montgomery stated "this isn't your typical bad b*tches twerking to a banger music video."[7] Meanwhile Entertainment Weekly's Shirley Li described the clip as "incredible and hypnotic and very, very cheeky, in all senses of the word."[8]
Conservative columnist Stephanie Hamill from right-wing news website The Daily Caller criticized the video, tweeting, "in the era of
#MeToo how exactly does this empower women?". Cardi B responded, "it says to women that I can wear and not wear whatever I want, do [whatever] I want and that no still means no," and questioned Hamill for misleading the purpose of the movement.[9][10]