"Wild Wild West" is the title of a hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 song written by Will Smith

Will Smith

Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...

 as the theme song for Smith's film of the same name

Wild Wild West

Wild Wild West is a 1999 American steampunk action-comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline , Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek.Similar to the original TV series it was based on, The Wild Wild West, the film features a large amount of gadgetry...

. The song also appears on Smith's 1999 album, Willenium. Will Smith's 1999 release was recorded specifically for Smith's planned summer blockbuster movie, Wild Wild West

Wild Wild West

Wild Wild West is a 1999 American steampunk action-comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline , Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek.Similar to the original TV series it was based on, The Wild Wild West, the film features a large amount of gadgetry...

. Smith's song became a number-one pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and its extended music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

, directed by Paul Hunter

Paul Hunter (director)

Paul Hunter is a music video director known for his high-budget, visually distinctive videos for popular music singles. He has directed over 100 music videos, many television advertisements and was nominated for an Emmy for Nike's Freestyle commercial...

, was a hit on MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

. Will Smith's "Wild Wild West" single samples

Sampling (music)

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

 Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

's song "I Wish

I Wish (Stevie Wonder song)

"I Wish" is a hit song by Stevie Wonder. It was released in 1976 as a single and included on the album Songs in the Key of Life. Written and produced by Wonder, the song focuses on his childhood...

", with parts of the chorus from Kool Moe Dee

Kool Moe Dee

Mohandas Dewese , better known as Kool Moe Dee, is an American Hip Hop MC prominent in the late 1970s through the early 1990s. He was born in Manhattan, New York...

's song of the same name

Wild Wild West (Kool Moe Dee song)

"Wild Wild West" is the title a hip hop song written in 1988 by Kool Moe Dee as a single.Kool Moe Dee's 1988 release deals with the differences in gangs dealing with violence. Released on the Jive label, it was a R&B hit, reaching number four on Billboard's R&B chart. However, it only reached...

 as well. Kool Moe Dee re-performs that chorus for the song, with additional guest vocals from R&B group Dru Hill

Dru Hill

Dru Hill is an American singing group, most popular during the late 1990s, whose repertoire included R&B, soul, and gospel music. Founded in Baltimore, Maryland, and active since 1992, Dru Hill recorded seven Top 40 hits, and is best known for the R&B #1 hits "In My Bed", "Never Make a Promise", ...

. The album version of the song also features, as an introduction, a brief spoken word conversation between Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith

Jaden Smith

Jaden Christopher Syre Smith is an American child actor, rapper, songwriter, dancer, and the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. He is the elder brother of singer Willow Smith...

 in which Will asks his son what song he should perform next, and Jaden suggests this one. The song won Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song.

Track listing

UK CD1

1. "Wild Wild West" - 4:05
2. "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" (Album Version) - 3:48
3. "Big Willie Style" (Left Eye Remix) - 3:35

UK CD2

1. "Wild Wild West" - 4:05
2. "Miami" (Jason Nevins' Live On South Beach Dub) - 5:11
3. "Chasing Forever" - 4:16

Thailand Maxi-Single

1. "Wild Wild West" - 4:05
2. "Wild Wild West" (Radio Version) - 3:29
3. "Wild Wild West" (A Cappella) - 4:05
4. "Miami" (Miami Mix) - 4:40
5. "Just The Two Of Us" (Rodney Jerkins Remix Featuring Brian Mc Knight) - 4:14

US Maxi-Single

1. "Wild Wild West" (Album Version) - 4:08
2. "Wild Wild West" (Radio Version) - 3:28
3. "Wild Wild West" (Instrumental) - 4:09
4. "Wild Wild West" (A Cappella) - 4:05

Music video

The high-profile music video for the single, running seven minutes and including several dialog sequences, featured Smith, Kool Moe Dee

Kool Moe Dee

Mohandas Dewese , better known as Kool Moe Dee, is an American Hip Hop MC prominent in the late 1970s through the early 1990s. He was born in Manhattan, New York...

, Dru Hill

Dru Hill

Dru Hill is an American singing group, most popular during the late 1990s, whose repertoire included R&B, soul, and gospel music. Founded in Baltimore, Maryland, and active since 1992, Dru Hill recorded seven Top 40 hits, and is best known for the R&B #1 hits "In My Bed", "Never Make a Promise", ...

, and guest appearances from Stevie Wonder, and, as their Wild Wild West characters Kevin Kline

Kevin Kline

Kevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.- Early life :...

, Salma Hayek

Salma Hayek

Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican film actress, director and producer. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.-Early life:...

 and Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...

. Fellow popstar Enrique Iglesias

Enrique Iglesias

Enrique Iglesias is a Spanish pop music singer, a son of singer Julio Iglesias.Enrique started his musical career on Mexican label Fonovisa...

 also appeared in the video playing a Prince. Moreoever, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 10, 1990 to May 20, 1996. The show stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who is sent to move in with his aunt and uncle in their...

co-star and tap dancer Alfonso Ribeiro

Alfonso Ribeiro

Alfonso Lincoln Ribeiro is an American actor, director, dancer, game show host, and comedian. While he received attention for his performance in the title role of the Broadway musical The Tap Dance Kid and his appearance as a dancer in a Pepsi commercial featuring Michael Jackson, Ribeiro is best...

 appeared in the music video as one of the dancers. Other cameos include actor Larenz Tate

Larenz Tate

Larenz Tate is an American film and television actor.-Early life:Tate was born on the west side of Chicago, Illinois, the son of Peggy and Larry Tate. He is the youngest of three siblings whose family moved to California when he was nine years old...

, Shari Headley

Shari Headley

Shari Headley is an American actress. Headley made her acting debut on The Cosby Show in 1985. Since then her career has mostly focused on television acting; she is perhaps best known for portraying police officer Mimi Reed Frye Williams on the popular soap opera All My Children from May 1991 to...

, singer/writer/producer Babyface, and female rapper MC Lyte

MC Lyte

MC Lyte is an American rapper who first gained fame in the late-1980s becoming the first solo female rapper to release a full album with 1988's critically acclaimed Lyte as a Rock.-Early life:...

. The "Wild Wild West" video notably was a star-making vehicle for Dru Hill lead singer Sisqó

Sisqó

Mark Durrell Andrews , known by his stage name Sisqó, is an American R&B singer and actor. He is best known as the lead singer of R&B group Dru Hill, and also for "Thong Song", a song from his first solo LP, Unleash the Dragon, that became an international hit. - Biography :Sisqó was born Mark...

, while relegating the other three members of the quartet to the background. Dru Hill member James "Woody" Green quit the group on the set of the video, feeling a need to return to his gospel music

Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

 roots.

Critical reception and parodies

Despite its pop success, the song was criticized for both sampling Wonder's song and for its incongruity with the western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 for which it serves as the theme. It won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst "Original" Song of 1999. (Matthew Wilkening of AOL Radio

AOL Radio

AOL Radio powered by Slacker, , is an online radio service available only in the United States.- Roots :...

 later ranked the song at #27 on the list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever while telling Will Smith in spirit, "Look, make your dumb 'robots in the Wild West' film, get millions, God bless. Just leave Stevie Wonder alone!") An "unreleased" remix of this song, said to be remixed by Jason Nevins

Jason Nevins

Jason Nevins is an American DJ, producer and remixer, who is most widely known for his pop dance productions.-Career:In the early 1990s, Nevins began releasing singles under various monikers through various dance labels, but achieved global recognition in 1998 with his production of Run-DMC's...

, is available through file-sharing programs. In the South Park

South Park

South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...

episode "Cat Orgy

Cat Orgy

"Cat Orgy" is the 38th episode of Comedy Central's animated series South Park.It originally aired on July 14, 1999. It is the first episode of a three-part story arc, often known as The Meteor Shower Trilogy, which tells three different stories all taking place on the same night. The other two...

", Eric Cartman

Eric Cartman

Eric Theodore Cartman is a fictional character in the American animated television series South Park. One of four main characters, along with Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Kenny McCormick, he is generally referred to within the series by his last name...

sings a parody of "Wild Wild West".

Charts

End of year chart (1999)	Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	33