Twenty years ago today, on Oct. 3, 2006, Atlanta’s DJ Unk released Beat’n Down Yo Block! through Big Oomp Records and Koch Records. If you were anywhere near a school dance, a pep rally or a club in 2006 and 2007, you know exactly what this album gave us: “Walk It Out” and “2 Step.”
What It Was
Unk, born Anthony Leonard Platt in Atlanta, signed with Big Oomp Records in 2000, per Wikipedia. Beat’n Down Yo Block! was his debut album. DJ Montay handled most of the production, and the 19-track album featured guests like Jazze Pha and Baby D, per Wikipedia.
The Hits
“Walk It Out” came out in August 2006 and went all the way to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on both the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts, per Wikipedia. It went platinum, and Billboard later said the song “became the unofficial soundtrack to pep rallies across the country.”
Then came the remix with André 3000 and Jim Jones, a full-on Atlanta-meets-Harlem moment. If you ask us, André’s verse on it is one of the best of his career. He treated a snap record like it deserved his A-game, and it showed.
“2 Step” followed in 2007, peaking at No. 24 on the Hot 100, No. 9 on R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and No. 4 on Hot Rap Tracks, and going gold, per Wikipedia. The official remix brought in T-Pain, Jim Jones and E-40, and T-Pain’s ad-libs on it are some of the most memorable of his whole run. For a lot of people, that’s the version they still hear in their heads.
The Numbers
The album peaked at No. 109 on the Billboard 200, No. 21 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 8 on Top Rap Albums, and it topped the Heatseekers Albums chart.
Why It Mattered
This was peak Atlanta snap and dance era, when a record with a simple move could take over the whole country without help from the radio gatekeepers. Unk’s music was built for movement first, and that’s why it lasted. Critics weren’t all sold on the full album, but nobody could argue with the singles. Rolling Stone later named “Walk It Out” one of the best one-hit wonders of the 2000s, though anybody who did the “2 Step” knows Unk had more than one.
You can draw a straight line from Unk to what came next. Soulja Boy turned “Crank That” into a seven-week No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 2007, per Wikipedia, with the same dance-first formula. Metro Atlanta crews like Travis Porter carried that club-ready energy into the 2010s. Unk built the lane, and a generation of Southern dance records drove down it.
Unk followed up with 2econd Season in 2008. He died on Jan. 24, 2025, at 43. Twenty years later, put “Walk It Out” on at any cookout in the Carolinas and watch what happens.
What’s your favorite Unk record: “Walk It Out,” the remix or “2 Step”?
Sources: Wikipedia: Beat’n Down Yo Block!, Wikipedia: Walk It Out, Wikipedia: Unk, Wikipedia: 2 Step, Wikipedia: Snap music, Variety, 107.7 The Bounce
