Posted by The Slickback dance is one of the most viral trends on TikTok in 2023. This time is a real challenge, because the dance move is so hard to learn that people are all looking for online tutorials. You definitely need some natural talent, but if you put some effort into learning, you can make your video and add it to the many interpretations you find here on TikTok. Don’t miss the song you need to use, though: it’s A Pimp Named Slickback, a modern track that samples a classic house hit you may not know. Let’s discover everything about it.
A Pimp Named Slickback: the song on TikTok’s viral dance
The song you hear in the TikTok videos of the Slickback dance challenge is A Pimp Named Slickback by LAKIM. You can find the original song in full streaming below.
It’s called the “Slickback Dance Challenge” precisely because of the song used for it: A Pimp Named Slickback was released by the American music artist Lakim in 2019 as part of his album Classics II, but it was adopted in 2023 for this specific dance challenge because of its catchy rhythm and unmistakeable melody. For those who didn’t recognize it, the track samples one of the biggest house music hits of all time, Gypsy Woman by Crystal Waters, originally released in 1991. You can find here the original song.
As in all modern musical trends, especially the ones that emerged on TikTok, the sample is sped up and enriched with a hip-hop attitude. Lakim is a talented producer and remixer, and that’s precisely the added value of his music: as he explains on his official website, he’s “bridging the gap between dance and hip-hop with style and finesse, and his sound is an ever-shifting blend of crisp drum patterns, dreamy synths, and lush vocal chops.” The artist is currently based in California and has been making music since 2012. You can find his full discography on his official Bandcamp profile.
The dance move accompanying the Slickback song is not new: as some users realized, it’s a stylish evolution of the “Jubi Slide” invented by TikTok user Jubi2fye in 2022. You can find here the original video where he presented this particular type of “levitating dance.” The song used by him back in those days was Jersey Anniversary, a collaborative song by KiaBHN, Tony! Toni! Toné!, DJ BigO, Vivid The Producer & DJ Sliink.
The Slickback song definitely has a different energy, and that’s what’s making this trend particularly viral. You will surely need a tutorial to learn how to do that dance, and it’s not easy to find a good one (one of the most viewed videos is this one, where Lord Hec explains the dance move in a 5-minutes span).
And while you practice, you can start learning the lyrics you hear in that specific part of the song, so your knowledge will be complete:
That’s what I said, Slickback
No, n–a I’m a pimp named Slickback
Pimp named Slickback-back
Pimp named, pimp named, pimp named Slickback
N–a are you deaf?
