Baha Men
Who Let The Dogs Out
The song "Who Let the Dogs Out" might had gained its popularity from the appearance in Rugrats in Paris: The Movie but the origins of the song can be traced back to Anslem Douglas' song "Doggie." The track was released by Douglas in 1999 with with a calypso vibe. Baha Men later covered the track in 2000. In an interview on his website, Anslem Douglas reveals that "It's a man-bashing song. I'll tell you why. The lyric of the song says, The party was nice, the party was pumpin'. When I said the word party I was being metaphorical. It really means things were going great." And things were going great, Until the men start the name-callin' / And then the girls respond to the call. What do the girls respond to the call with? Douglas continues in his interview that "a woman shouts, Who let the dogs out? And we start calling men dogs. It was really a man-bashing song." Douglas describes a reversal of roles and an eye-for-an-eye situation. If the men are name-calling, then the women can name-call just as well. It all comes back to the concept of catcalling. On a literal level, who would be after a cat-a dog. Thus, the women call the men dogs.