Geico brings fun back with Tag Team in a new commercial

We all need something to laugh about right now and Geico's recent insurance commercial featuring the hip hop duo Tag Team is pretty hillarious. The Geico announcer asks a woman named Tasha if she is waiting on Tag Team to invite her to take advantage of Geico's special rates. The duo shows up in her kitchen with ice cream scoops in their hands. They begin singing"Scoop there it is", and dancing to the tune of their 1993 hit single "Whoomp! (There It Is)". For a moment, Tasha is stunned, then she begins dancing along as well. Her daughter enters the kitchen with a young man who joins in on the fun and begins dancing too. The daughter walks out of the room with a look of embarassment on her face.

The commercial is fun and engaging and I have laughed each time it is shown. Tag Team is a hip hop/pop rap duo from Atlanta, GA. and their multiplatinum single has been featured in numerous movies, television shows, and advertisements. Steve Gibson (Steve Rolln) and Cecil Glenn (DC the Brain Supreme) are the talents behind the name. As Tag Team, the two men broke stereotypes about hip-hop by demonstrating that there was more to the genre than offensive lyrics. "Whoomp! (There It Is)" was a crossover hit that has been enjoyed across cultures and generations. The television commercial brings back feel-good moments from before our nation became what it is today.

Cecil Glenn and Steve Gibson met at Manual High School in 1982, where Gibson played drums in the jazz band and Glenn sang as a tenor in Manual High School’s Bolt Vibrations Chorus. They started out as hip-hop artists but the musical style of Tag Team was heavily influenced by their exposure to Southern Bass music after moving to Georgia. The duo, recording as Tag Team Crew released their first 12-inch single titled "Strickly Political" in 1990. They were influenced by Kilo Ali and Success N Effect as they explored the roots of Southern Hip Hop.

In August of 1992, Tag Team recorded “Whoomp! (There It Is)” while Glenn was working as the main DJ at an Atlanta gentlemen’s club called Magic City. So many people requested the song in the next few months that the duo knew they had a hit on their hands. Record execs, however, rejected the recording because were not sure that this Southern sound would sell outside of the Atlanta area. Glenn borrowed $2,500 from his parents and used the money to produce 800 records. These quickly sold out in Atlanta, simply on word of mouth alone.

The duo were then pointed in the direction of Stax Records mogul, Al Bell who agreed to sign Tag Team without ever hearing the song. Bell allegedly said to Glenn, “I don’t need to hear the record. I hear it in your spirit.” The rest as they say is history and Whoomp went to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart where it stayed for 7 weeks. The single has been certified platinum 4 times. Thanks to Geico, Whoomp (There it is) is being introduced to new generations and Tag Team has been revived. Close to 30 years after releasing their mega-hit, Tag Team continues to perform around the world.

Steve Gibson is a music producer and CEO of Merciless Music and Cecil Glenn is a voice-over artist and actor. Their fun hit song will get a boost because of the Geico commercial. The band’s website indicates they have performed at several smaller venues in 2018 and 2019, such as festivals, casinos, 1990s themed concerts, athletic events, and international venues. If you have not seen the commercial, then click on the above video and allow yourself to relax a moment and smile. Let Geico and Tag Team take you back to better days.