No Diggity – BLACKstreet (Featuring Dr. Dre) | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning

Chart Performance: Pop (#1 for 4 weeks) & R&B (#1); 1996

Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne

Peak #1 R&B & Pop for 4 weeks; 1996 After piloting R&B trio Guy to eight Top 10 R&B hits between 1988 and 1991, Riley moved over to the production side of the music biz.

Despite outstanding achievements with artists such as Bobby Brown (Humpin’ Around), Heavy D & The Boyz (Now That We Found Love), and Michael Jackson (Black Or White), he missed performing.

So, Teddy put together BLACKstreet in 1992, and two years later he was once again a singing star, as Before I Let You Go hit #2 R&B and reached #7 Pop. Another two years and Riley was playing around with a sample from Bill Withers’ Grandma’s Hands.

He added the “no diggity” idea from a spontaneous rap created by LL Cool J over of remix of BLACKstreet’s I Like The Way You Work. Riley invited female rapper Queenpen to do her part, and Dr. Dre came up with a rap for the video, which Teddy edited into No Diggity after the track was already finished. No Diggity won Teddy and BLACKstreet a R&B Group Vocalist Grammy.

This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.

Produced by:

  • Teddy Riley
  • William “Skylz” Stewart

Lyrics Written by:

  • Teddy Riley
  • Chauncey Hannibal
  • Lynise Walters
  • William Stewart
  • Dr. Dre

Check Out all the Song Meanings of the 90s
Top 100 Songs Of The 1990s

Ed Osborne

Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).