Hip-hop is home to a bizarre tension that probably doesn’t exist anywhere else in music.

No other genre can pinpoint such a specific moment in time, but stay so timeless.

Other songs might personally remind you of a memory or milestone, but only hip-hop shines a light on the greater culture.

Foot Locker will live forever thanks to Nelly’s “Air Force Ones.”

“We’re gonna skate to one song and one song only,” was barely ever Chazz and Jimmy. That’s Jay & Kanye.

And while a hip-hop song might take some of us back to junior high, teenagers are still discovering those songs today. I mean, three years ago, Sprite built a whole campaign around 1979’s “Rapper’s Delight.”

In fact, I can sum up this entire concept with two words: “Tootsie Roll.”

Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” is at the heart of that ecosystem.

In 1995, a year before the song’s release, Nike was positioning Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway as its next Michael Jordan.

But as dazzling as he was on the court, soft-spoken Penny was no MJ in front of the cameras. Borrowing a concept from a past Nike campaign featuring Spike Lee as Michael Jordan’s annoying little antagonist, the wooden marionette “Lil’ Penny,” voiced by Chris Rock, was born. Tyra Banks, Tiger Woods, Stevie Wonder, and even the “Jerry Maguire” kid made cameos with Lil’ Penny. To this day, the two-year campaign still ranks among Nike’s funniest and most memorable.

Enter trailblazing hip-hop video director/producer Hype Williams, strategically pairing “No Diggity’s” distinctively jaunty piano riff with Lil’ Penny’s cultural clout to elevate the already successful Blackstreet into a household name.

But here’s what gives “No Diggity” a unique place in the hip-hop cultural echelons: aside from the existence of the puppets, there’s absolutely NOTHING about the song or video that would clue you into any of what you just read. Unlike so many other cultural moments in mainstream hip-hop, this one is almost entirely IYKYK.

Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”

I wonder what he’d say about a secret that’s certified platinum?

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