Ya Mama by Fatboy Slim

Ya Mama - Fatboy Slim

Fatboy Slim, also known as Norman Cook, is an English DJ, musician, multi-instrumentalist and record producer / mixer. He grew up in Surry, and later moved to Brighton to study for a degree, which is where he began to DJ.

Fatboy Slim doesn't take music videos very seriously, and tends to leave ideas up to the producer. He first began making them when he was told he had to, in order to make money as he needed physical sales of his songs to be made due to steaming not being a thing then. The music video for 'Ya Mama' was produced by a group of filmmakers called Traktor, who came up with the idea and even shot the video is the Carriacou Island, West Indies without Fatboy Slim actually being there. In the music video, the main character plays a cassette tape of the song 'Ya Mama' and starts unwillingly dancing, as if he was possessed by the music. He then takes two other characters to a market with the idea of charging people to listen to the song and experience the same uncontrollable movements they had. Even though Fatboy Slim had no input in the video idea, the concept of charging people to listen to the song and dance uncontrollably as if they had been possessed by the music, could link to how he is a DJ as they are known for charging people to go clubs and dance to their music.

The song itself contains various samples. The guitar riffs are from 'The Kettle' by Colosseum, the "Push the tempo" vocals are taken from 'Let the Rhythm Pump' by Doug Lazy, the "Shake what ya mama gave ya" vocals are sampled from 'Shake Whatcha Mama Gave Ya' by Stik E & The Hoodz, and finally the majority of the track was taken from 'Block rocking' Bets' by The Chemical Brothers.