Blackstreet – "No Diggity" (1996)

I like the way you work it

No diggity

I got to bag it up

Psychiatrists and psychologists use “psychopath” to describe someone who exhibits persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, uninhibited, egotism. 

Recent studies in the United States and UK have found that roughly 1% of the general population are psychopaths.  

The number of psychopaths is much higher in the prisons: perhaps 15% to 25% of incarcerated criminals are psychopaths.

The proportion of bosses and ex-wives who are psychopaths is likely even greater.

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Researchers at New York University are trying to identify psychopaths on the basis of their musical tastes.  

Here’s a description of a preliminary study they recently performed:

Psychopaths are often portrayed as having stereotypical preferences for classical music.  We wondered whether this is an accurate representation of this condition and whether psychopaths differ from controls in terms of aesthetic preferences in general.  To address this empirically, we assessed 193 individuals . . . in terms of their psychopathic traits, as measured by the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP).  We then queried their preference for 260 carefully songs, from a diverse range of genres and sub-genres.  Doing so, we identified a subset of songs that can be used to identify individuals with psychopathic traits.  

It turns out that psychopaths do not, in fact, prefer classical music.  People who scored high for psychopathic traits liked rap music – in particular, Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and today’s featured song, Blackstreet’s “No Diggity.”

NYU professor Pascal Wallisch is hopeful that his research will eventually allow us to identify psychopaths based on their playlists.

“The beauty of this idea is you can use it as a screening test without consent, cooperation or maybe even the knowledge of the people involved,” Professor Wallisch told an interviewer.  “The ethics of this are very hairy” – you can say that again – “but so is having a psychopath as a boss, and so is having a psychopath in any position of power.”

Here’s a photo of Professor Wallisch.  I wonder what his score on the good ol’ Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale was:

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I don’t remember “No Diggity,” but I sure as hell remember “Macarena.” 

“Macarena” was the #1 song on the Billboard “Hot 100” for fourteen weeks in 1996 until “No Diggity” finally knocked it out of the top spot.

Here’s the official music video for “No Diggity,” which was directed by Hype Williams.  (Williams collaborated on twenty music videos with Kanye West, including the truly amazing music video for “All of the Lights.”)

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: