The Singles Jukebox

And here’s our first cat piss reference…

[Video]
[7.43]

Zach Lyon: Maybe one of the hookiest songs of the decade, owing much to what is one of Nate’s best choruses, but also the twerky melody and awesome drums, and Fab’s young, warbling voice. I think this is a perfect song, but I don’t know how much of it’s nostalgia: like “Area Codes,” I was 13, listening to radio pop mostly because I wanted the cool kids to like me (I was partial to singing “The Real Slim Shady” to myself in art class, about as awkwardly as a giant pimple can) but also because the videos had SO MANY PRETTY LADIES. And I remember this video so well! From memory, the ladies were prettier than in “Area Codes,” and the color scheme was this really vicious brand of red white and blue, and this was around the time hip-hop video directors began to obsess over playing with the ratios (culminating in that nauseating thing where they stick different scenes in the letterbox area and alternate them with the main action). So I can’t listen to this without thinking about watching the video in my basement, standing a couple feet in front of the TV because there was nowhere to sit that wasn’t covered in cat urine, and I gave absolutely no part of a shit about Nate Dogg’s voice or Fab’s lyrics… but I’m pretty sure this is still a perfect song.
[10]

Asher Steinberg: When I was in high school listening to this song, I thought the hook was about a guy who couldn’t deny that a girl wasn’t that interested in him, but was too cool to care. Maybe I was self-projecting. Well, that would have been a more interesting song than this, but, between Nate’s nouveau-Rat Pack swagger and Rick Rock’s chunky bass, this is a pretty great song anyway. My only complaint is that Fab is extremely lackluster.
[7]

Martin Skidmore: I can’t say Fabolous has ever interested me greatly — he’s a pretty anonymous, ordinary rapper. Nate doesn’t sound hugely excited to be here, reasonably enough. He’s still better than the rest warrants, but it’s a phoned-in performance, and it’s at least a minute too long.
[6]

Ian Mathers: I know that Nate and Fabolous are working together, as it were, on this track, but I can’t help thinking that when Nate starts the hook after each of Fab’s boastful, grumpy verses that he’s responding to the other rapper, not reinforcing him, especially with Fabolous’ responses (“yeah, okay,” like he can’t deny it either). Which would be a way funnier song (more along the lines of Nate knocking you on your ass, like you’re drunk, or Fab putting your mind right via a bullet). Thankfully “Can’t Deny It” doesn’t need the help; the stiffly funky production and Nate’s silky, nimble hook are already irrefutable.
[8]

Michaelangelo Matos: Ah yes, the period when everyone used that flickering guitar-plectrum sound. Those were the days.
[4]

Al Shipley: It’s amusing to think about Fabolous, a Brooklyn rapper who’s spent most of his career aping Jay and Biggie, straight west coastin’ with a debut single that featured Nate Dogg singing Tupac lyrics over a funky beat by future hyphy architect Rick Rock. But every note of it is perfect, even that goofy bridge where Nate tries to sound tough intoning “I’ma knock him so hard on his butt/ Just like he been drinkin’, like he drunk.”
[9]

Katie Lewis: I have a confession to make: In the last decade, every single time I’ve accomplished something I’m proud of or just happen to feel like a badass for some reason or another, this song’s chorus starts playing out in my head automatically and gets stuck there on repeat for a while. I don’t necessarily mind it, but find it a little odd that in ten years, no other song has ever taken its place as “katie’s-power-song” in my brain. Nate Dogg took this already classic hook and transformed it into some form of magical crack cocaine that I can’t (and don’t want to?) quit.
[8]