2001 defined 1999. Hot girl was a hit. I'll give you that. But it wasn't nearly as big as the songs Mel listed.
outside of the west coast, 2001 was a white people's album. same with the tour that followed it.
guerrilla warfare & ryde or die volume 1 were the defining albums of 1999 by far. one of my biggest regrets in life is not attending the ruff ryder/cash money tour. I was f*ckin up.
actually "hot girl" was a bigger hit than "ha" back then. people forget that "ha" was kind of a slow burn in a lot of markets. and sure, it wasn't as big as "back that thing up" and "bling bling" but it was up there.