Why You Recognize The Rappers From The Geico Dessert Commercial

"Scoop! There it is! Scoop! There it is!"

Yep, just say those words out loud, and you might immediately detect an all-too familiar rhythm (at least if you were alive during the 1990s). Those lyrics belong to a recent Geico commercial (watchable on YouTube) featuring a lady cooking in the kitchen who gets a visit from a couple of rapping, smiling dudes who show her how to make ice cream — french vanilla, rocky road — complete with a "Shaka-laka! Shaka-laka! Choco-laka! Choco-laka" refrain. And if you're sitting there over the commercial's mere 40-second length blinking and thinking, "What in the world is going on? Who are these guys? What's the relationship between Geico and ice cream? How did that girl in the back endure the cringe as long as she did?" Yeah, you're not alone.

Geico indeed has something of a history of, uh... let's say incongruous commercials. A quick look at the Geico website lets you stroll down marketing's memory lane and rediscover that Geico's ad campaigns, at least, are definitely about "more than just great savings." They're apparently about baby reveals, hoaxes, fencing, and, as Looper reminds us, cavemen and Sleeping Beauty. And this new rapper dessert ad? It's definitely about nostalgia and one-hit wonders, because the rappers in the commercial? They're none other DC "The Brain Supreme" Glenn and Steve "Roll'n" Gibson: Tag Team, a rap duo whose biggest track is definitely 1993's "Whoomp! (There It Is)."

That's right: "Whoomp! (There It Is)," a track about... whoomping? Well, even if you didn't know the name of the rappers in the Geico commercial, the name of the group is embroidered on the guy on the right's jacket, Steve "Roll'n" Gibson. He and his partner-in-rap rose to a brief, but glowing prominence with a track that, per Hype Magazine, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 58 on "Billboard's Greatest Songs of All-Time!" The song's upbeat tone and irresistible hook, along with a colorful, bouncy video (viewable on YouTube) helped propel Tag Team into the limelight at a time when DC "The Brain Supreme" Glenn was otherwise working at a strip club in Atlanta.

Since then, the duo hasn't exactly been pumping out the hits, but Tag Team is still making bank, anyway. As of 2013, as Smithsonian Magazine describes, the song still earned a fat $500,000 a year, which translated into about $70,000 each for Roll'n and The Brain. Before Geico, "Whoomp! (There It Is)" made a resurgence in popularity following 2003's Will Ferrell Christmas romp Elf. Other than that, the song has been used largely for promotional purposes, such as Luvs Diaper's widely reviled 2011 "Poop! (There It Is)" advertisement (also on YouTube, if you dare). 

In fact, according to AdWeek, the recent Geico commercial was the first time in nearly 30 years that Tag Team's smiling faces were personally invited to an event. Judging by their unbridled charm, it's about time.