Throwback Thursday: Beenie Man, Ms. Thing’s ‘Dude’

Dude, the smash hit by Beenie Man and Miss Thing, had such a stranglehold on Dancehall music in 2003, that you just had to be there to truly get it. From being an easy favorite at over-the-top Dancehall parties and public functions, to oddly being the song of choice for many a Jamaican school buses – mornings and evenings – this cult classic holds its own whenever it needs to, and is this week’s focus of our Throwback Thursday series.

“Yuh want a proppa fix? Call mi!” is as iconic an opening as ever, and is usually the only catalyst needed to recall the rest of the song, which was laid on Mad House/Dave Kelly’s Fiesta Riddim.

The riddim featured other hits like Cham’s Vitamin S, Lady Saw’s Man Is The Least and Elephant Man’s Bad Man, but Dude was the only version on Fiesta to crossover in the United States.

The song became Beenie Man’s highest and longest charting song in the United States after it was re-released by Virgin Records on Back To Basics, his sixteenth studio album, which was released in 2004.

It peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 2004 and spent 26 weeks total on the chart.

In the UK, Dude peaked at No. 6 on the Singles chart, and was later certified Silver in the country, after surpassing sales of over 200,000 units.

Over three verses, all sung by Beenie Man, the song is delivered as a playful and sexually-charged party anthem that is not unlike similarly-themed hits. It features the usual boastful commentary about superior sexual prowess, and prioritizes sexual satisfaction through copious amounts of ego-stroking. The song, however, doesn’t invite you to think about those complex relationship issues. It instead lures you in to celebrate its catchy delivery and groovy backing soundtrack, and keeps you in the familiar and safe arms of a Dancehall icon who loses himself in the excitement and vibes of the song’s entire arrangement.

Miss Thing, whose real name is Nateshia Lindsay, anchored the song with her joy-filled delivery of the chorus in between Beenie’s verses, and seized that moment well to firmly introduce herself to a Dancehall career she would eventually leave in 2014.

It is unclear whose creative decision led to the use of a Vocoder – a device that synthesizes the human voice – on the track, but it’s hard to imagine the song without it. Combined with the crisp drum snares and the punchy coordination of percussion instruments, the song hits as a masterful blend of precision and raw energy, deeply rooted in Dancehall’s free-spiritedness.

Interestingly, Dude was not originally intended to be a song for Beenie Man and Miss Thing, according to Cham.

In a 2020 interview with YouTube channel, TVFoxboogie, Cham explained that he wrote Dude with Dave Kelly. 

“The idea was for Foxy Brown to do the hook,” he explained.

“So Foxy Brown was supposed to sing the chorus and I was supposed to do the verses. So, it was supposed to be a follow-up to our hit single, Tables Will Turn. When the Beenie thing came about, we decided ‘I’m gonna keep this, you can have Beenie do that’. And, instead of letting them use one of their artists, we’re gonna use one of our newly signed female artists who was Miss Thing at the time, and we put her on the hook to give her some exposure.”

When the song’s music video was released, it featured a remixed version of the hit, which featured American rapper Shawnna.