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    "headline": "Young Dro’s Shoulder Lean with T.I. turns 20; the Atlanta hit went 2× Platinum as a ringtone",
    "description": "Young Dro's Shoulder Lean with T.I. came out on March 3, 2006, topped the US R&B/Hip-Hop chart and went 2× Platinum as a ringtone.",
    "datePublished": "2026-11-11T11:12:00+00:00",
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    "keywords": "Atlanta, Grand Hustle, T.I., Young Dro",
    "articleBody": "Twenty years after it first hit radio, Young Dro’s “Shoulder Lean” still holds a number few rap singles of its era can match: a 2× Platinum award from the RIAA as a mastertone, the industry’s term for a ringtone cut from the original recording, representing 2 million sales. The Atlanta song, with T.I. on the hook, came out on March 3, 2006, as Young Dro’s debut single. Within months it had reached No. 1 on the US R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart, No. 1 on the rap songs chart and No. 10 on the Hot 100. From Bankhead to the top of the chart Young Dro, born D’Juan Hart in 1979, grew up in the Bankhead section of west Atlanta. He scored a regional hit with “Yes Sir” around 1999 on a local label before joining Grand Hustle, the imprint run by T.I. through Atlantic Records. The two rappers had known each other since the early 1990s. “Shoulder Lean” was produced by Grand Hustle’s in-house beatmaker Cordale “Lil’ C” Quinn. Its slow, bouncing beat came with its own dance, and that dance did a lot of the work. The single was nominated for best hip hop dance at the 2006 BET Hip Hop Awards, where it also won the mobile ringtone prize. The music video, directed by President Thomas Forbes, nods to Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang.” It is packed with Atlanta and Southern faces, including DJ Drama, DJ Khaled, Slim Thug, Big Gipp, Dallas Austin and Lil Duval. The 2006 timeline Here is how the song rolled out across its first year, pieced together from its release history: March 3, 2006: Official release as the lead single from Best Thang Smokin’. May 2, 2006: Added to rhythmic radio in the US, followed by urban radio on May 9. June 27, 2006: Made available as a digital download. August 29, 2006: Best Thang Smokin’ arrives and debuts at No. 3 on the US albums chart. September 5, 2006: Sent to pop radio; it peaked at No. 33 on the Pop 100. The song finished 2006 at No. 59 on the year-end Hot 100 and No. 13 on the year-end R&B/Hip-Hop list. Why the ringtone number matters “Shoulder Lean” landed at the peak of the ringtone boom, when a hook played from a flip phone could be worth as much as a radio spin. Young Dro’s biography puts the song’s early ringtone sales at more than 500,000; the later RIAA mastertone award covers 2 million. In Canada it went Gold as a ringtone as well. Young Dro never had another hit under his own name, while T.I. counted it as his fourth Top 10. Even so, the beat lived on. Lil Wayne rapped over it as “Live from the 504” on his 2007 mixtape Da Drought 3. Atlanta has kept supplying moments like this one, from Gucci Mane’s 17-track album Against All Odds to Outkast’s Georgia Bulldogs collection with Nike. Young Dro has stayed active as a featured voice. He released High Times in 2013 and Da Reality Show in 2015, and in 2024 he appeared on “Pricey” by J. Cole and Ari Lennox, a Hot 100 entry 18 years after his first. Further reading Wikipedia: Shoulder Lean Wikipedia: Young Dro Illustrative image. Image: Marc Merlin, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.",
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