“I didn’t really feel like this song was going to be big until we were preparing to be on The Jenny Jones Show,” Baha Men singer Rik Carey tells Gold Derby. “I’m like, What? You serious?’ Everything just happened so fast. But something was in the works…”
“I don’t think American Airlines flew as much as we flew to promote that song. We were just all over the place,” laughs Baha Men percussionist Isaiah Taylor. “But hats off to Steve. He saw it, he got behind it, and it happened. And I thank God for him, because literally, Steve gave us a career.”
Taylor and Carey are of course discussing “Who Let the Dogs Out,” one of the biggest singles of the year 2000 and one of the biggest sports anthems of all time. And the “Steve” that Taylor is referring to is legendary A&R man Steve Greenberg, who had so much faith in the Bahamian junkanoo band, and in “Who Let the Dogs Out,” that he risked his entire career — quitting his job at Mercury Records and launching his own record label — just to release the party anthem.
Baha Men were already veterans of the Bahamas music scene, starting out in 1977 as the disco/funk combo High Voltage, before Greenberg, an avid Caribbean musicfanwho was working at Atlantic Records at the time, discovered and signed them in 1991. The renamed Baha Men scored a couple of regional hits before following Greenberg to Mercury Records, where by the late ‘90s he was riding high of the massive success of one of his other discoveries, brotherly pop trio Hanson. When Greenberg heard “Who Let the Dogs Out” (which had originally been written and recorded by Trinidadian musician Anslem Douglas, and previously covered by a British novelty act called Fat Jakk and his Pack of Pets), he unwaveringly believed that it could be a huge hit for Baha Men. But Taylor absolutely did not understand the song’s appeal. And neither did the powers-that-be at Mercury, apparently.
“I said, ‘Man, you crazy! We are not doing that!’ I didn’t see at that time what he saw. I thought he was crazy,” Taylor laughs, recalling the day when Greenberg called him at his home studio with the “Dogs” proposal. However, it didn’t take long for Greenberg to change Taylor’s mind. “He said, ‘I’d just like for you to do this one song, and then you can do whatever else you want to do.’ He and I had a conversation for about five minutes. And at the end of the conversation, I said to him, ‘Steve, the conversation is finished. We will do the song.’”
“He was very much a believer in the song itself. He saw the vision, and he was steadfast with it. No one could convince him otherwise,” says Baha Men musical director/guitarist Herschel Small. “And I guess when a record exec comes to you and is just convinced that it’s going to hit, you kind of buy into that belief and say, ‘OK, we’ll try it. What do we got to lose?’”
Greenberg, as it turns out, had a lot to lose. But we’ll get to that in a moment. First, he also had to convince the veteran Baha Men members to undergo a millennial “rebrand” and add three new singers to their lineup. Once again, Taylor trusted Greenberg and didn’t need much persuading. “When Steve and I spoke about this at [Miami recording studio] Circle House, he said, ‘Now, you don’t have to do it, but let me give you an idea.’ I go, ‘OK, Steve, let me hear it.’ He said, ‘Get younger guys.’ And I said, ‘Done.’”
Two of those new young recruits ended up being Omerit Hield (the nephew of original Baha Men lead vocalist Nehemiah Hield) and Marvin Prosper. The third was Rik Carey, who, despite being the son of original High Voltage/Baha Men guitarist Pat Carey, had to audition like everyone else, American Idol-style, at the Breezes hotel in Nassau. “When I walked to the hotel, I swear to God almighty, the line of singers who wanted this opportunity to be a part of this group was literally out the door,” Rik marvels. “And I stood in that line and waited my turn, did my audition. I did a Stevie Wonder song. I can’t remember what song, but I nailed it. … The guys were impressed because they basically thought I had the image, I had the sound, I had the right personality. And the rest was history, after that.”
Carey, who was only “about 18, 19 years old” at the time, auditioned on a Saturday, and by Sunday he was on a plane to Miami to record vocals for Baha Men’s fifth official studio album, Who Let the Dogs Out, which was already “about 70 percent done.” But Baha Men hadn’t, of course, finished the all-important title track. Carey and his new bandmates worked “about three or four days” on “Who Let the Dogs Out,” and while Carey’s Stevie Wonder cover had demonstrated that he had vocal chops, nothing could have prepared him for hours of woofing and baying in the Circle House studio booth.
“Yes, we did the barking,” laughs Carey, who is now a record producer himself. “Stacks and stacks of vocals. It was group vocals, meaning it was several of us in the booth barking, and then there were individuals barking… just to give it more of a big, big sound. … [Greenberg] knew what he was doing. He wanted it to be as authentic and real as possible. So, that’s the extra mile you go through. … But who am I to question these veterans? I’m the new guy. I just let nature take its course and let Jesus take the wheel, so to speak, and just rolled with the punches as they came along. And I learned. I was like a sponge.”
“Steve knew where he was going with the song. What I do love about Steve is that he is hands-on,” says Taylor.
“He was particular about what snare was used and how the snare sounded. He had a very good idea of what he wanted the bass to sound like and what kind of beat he really felt. And if he didn’t feel it was right, he would be adamant about it. He was really the co-producer,” adds Small.
Greenberg was obviously certain that “Who Let the Dogs Out” sounded like a smash. And so was superstar songwriter Desmond Child (who co-wrote the Who Let the Dogs Out album cut “You Can Get It”), who, as Small recalls, predicted that “Dogs” would be 2000’s “song of the summer.” And by now, the band members themselves were also starting to become convinced. But the label brass at Mercury still balked, so Greenberg walked.
“We were actually going over a contract at the studio when we were recording ‘Dogs,’ and he called us and said, ‘Don’t sign the contract! I have something better.’ He was getting such a rough time from the label that he was with. He wanted us to do the song, and the label didn’t care for the song — or care for Baha Men,” Taylor recalls. (Baha Men’s previous Mercury album, Dooong Spank, had only sold 700 copies in the U.S.) “But he believed in us and believed in the song so much. So, he decided, ‘I am going to do my own label.’ He went independent. God bless him.”
Greenberg left Mercury and founded S-Curve Records, which later had massive success with Joss Stone, “Stacy’s Mom”-era Fountains of Wayne, and Andy Grammer. But “Who Let the Dogs Out” was S-Curve’s first-ever release, and it eventually went triple-platinum and actually won Best Dance Recording at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards, beating out Enrique Iglesias, Jennifer Lopez, and even electronica darling Moby. Taylor chuckles, “[Mercury executives] were probably kicking themselves, because they just didn’t see what [Greenberg] saw, like everybody else. Even the co-producer [Michael Mangini] had thought something was wrong with Steve.”
Sports teams like the Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Browns, and Baltimore Ravens helped “Dogs” become a sensation, but Small thinks some of the song’s appeal literally had to do with man’s best friend. “Dogs have always had an endearment. It was almost like people were waiting for someone to have a song that they could relate to with their favorite pet,” he theorizes.
And apparently actual dogs were fans of the song too. “We ran into a gentleman who gave us the story that he went on vacation, left his dog with his parents, and the dog was not comfortable at all. So, they actually had to play ‘Who Let the Dogs Out’ for that dog, and it calmed him right down,” Taylor chuckles. “I have literally seen video tapes with people playing ‘Who Let the Dogs Out,’ and their dog is actually barking.”
“That still works to this day. I use it for my dog,” adds Carey. “I know it sound corny, but yeah, it does actually work! She barks back. She gets excited.”
Given the fact that the “Nicki Minaj Dog Challenge” is all over social media right now, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before TikTok users and their mutts go viral by barking to Baha Men, especially now that a new remix by Wuki and DJ Susan has just been released for the song’s 25th anniversary. “That’s probably already been happening. It’s always going to be a trend. It’ll never stop,” Taylor proclaims.
“Who Let the Dogs Out” indeed continues to permeate pop culture — becoming the subject of two different documentaries (“shout-out to VICE,” says Carey), soundtracking a 2025 Super Bowl commercial, and even inspiring the title of queer feminist U.K. punk band Lambrini Girls’ debut album this year. (Apparently “Who Let the Dogs Out” was actually a “battle of the sexes” social-commentary song lambasting sleazy male catcallers, although that message sort of got lost along the way.) And while Baha Men’s members admit that they’ve occasionally struggled with the silly song’s legacy, they’re still proud of it, and still thankful that Greenberg believed in it — and in them.
“We’ve had some really great songs that were overshadowed because of ‘Dogs,’ but I’ve learned to accept that over the years. I’ve learned to embrace it,” shrugs Carey. “This is basically what we’ve built, and even if we wanted to push it aside, we couldn’t. That’s always going to be us.”
“Since we’ve recorded it and what it has done, I’ve always been grateful,” states Small. “Most artists, especially coming from our region of the world, don’t get to experience that kind of success. And so, I remain grateful that Steve chose us to do it, because he could have chosen whomever.”
This interview originally ran on Gold Derby.
