About Whoomp! There It Is

"Whoomp! (There It Is)" is the debut single by 1990s rap duo Tag Team, written by members Cecil "DC the Brain Supreme" Glenn and Steve "Rolln" Gibson. The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot R&B chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1993. "Whoomp!" reached multi-platinum status and broke records for the number of consecutive weeks in the top 10. Though Tag Team is considered a one-hit wonder, as their subsequent singles did not find the same success, "Whoomp!" has remained a pop culture staple with multiple placements in film, television, and advertisements. The song has also endured as a mainstay at sporting and arena events.

Tag Team recorded "Whoomp! (There It Is)" in August 1992. At that time, Glenn was working as the main DJ at Magic City, an Atlanta gentlemen's club that would later become recognized as a hub of Atlanta hip-hop and rap music. The song sampled a synthesizer line from the 1980 Italo disco hit "I'm Ready" by Kano. Glenn played the track in the club on the same day it was mixed and received a positive reaction from the audience. In the following months, people requested the song so often that it became clear the song had the potential to become a hit. The single was shopped to and rejected by multiple record labels because executives were unfamiliar with Southern Bass and were unsure if the sound would sell well around the country. Glenn instead borrowed $2,500 from his parents to press eight hundred records. The singles quickly sold out in Atlanta on word of mouth alone. A representative from Mercury Records suggested that the best person to promote music from the Southern Bass genre was Stax Records mogul Al Bell. Glenn reached out to Bell, who agreed to sign Tag Team without even hearing the song. Bell reportedly told Glenn, "I don’t need to hear the record. I hear it in your spirit." A similar song, "Whoot, There It Is", was released by the Miami-based group 95 South a month prior to Tag Team's "Whoomp!" Both groups' record companies maintained that the similarities were a coincidence, as the phrase, "Whoomp (or whoot), there it is", was a common expression used by dancers in Atlanta and Miami nightclubs that members from both groups frequented. Arsenio Hall hosted both groups on his show to perform their versions of the songs and let viewers vote on their favorite by calling a 900 number to donate money to the relief effort for the 1993 Midwest Floods. The phrase "Whoomp! There it is!" has come to mean something similar to "Look at that!". It is intended to encourage "positive partying". Tag Team has explained that the phrase refers to "anything that one agrees with on a positive level.