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Run This Town

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"Run This Town"
Song

"Run This Town" is a 2009 song performed by American rapper Jay-Z. The song features Barbadian R&B singer Rihanna and rap artist Kanye West, who also produced the song alongside No I.D.[1] It is released as the second single of Jay-Z's studio album The Blueprint 3. After the song was released to iTunes on August 11, 2009, it jumped to the third position on the Billboard Hot 100, making it his highest peak as a lead artist to date. It is also Jay-Z's first Top 5 Rap Song since 2006's "Show Me What You Got". Jay-Z, Rihanna and West performed "Run This Town" on the series premiere of The Jay Leno Show on September 14, 2009.[2][3] The song samples 70’s Greek band The 4 Levels of Existence's song "Someday in Athens".

Background

The second official single was originally planned as "Off That" featuring Drake[4] but has since been changed to "Run This Town" with Rihanna and Kanye West, as confirmed by Jay-Z in an interview with Tim Westwood, "We basically run this town. It's myself, Rihanna and Kanye. It's pretty much it."[5] The song made its radio debut on July 24 at 9:11 a.m to coincide with the album's release date, September 11th, 2009. The official single was released on iTunes on August 11, 2009.[6] It was officially released to urban radio the week of August 9, 2009.[7] Its UK release followed on August 31 2009.[8] Rihanna's contribution was her first musical appearance following her February 8th altercation with her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.[9]

Critical reception

"Run This Town" has received mixed reviews. About.com felt that Jay-Z lacked presence, writing, "It looks like someone finally got tired of being bullied by “Big Brother.” Roc Nation dropped the ball on the song credit though; it was supposed to read ‘Kanye West Featuring Rihanna,’ because ‘Ye murdered Jay on his own track. But that's not saying much because Jay was running this race on one foot. In other words, Kanye didn’t win, Jay lost".[10]

Pitchfork Media however, praised the song: "There's something for everybody: Jay sounds engaged in a way he rarely has since unretiring, Rihanna coos those "ay ay"s the radio loves, and Kanye West, as you may have read, once again upstages the guy he's producing. Rihanna's hook may not be Auto-Tune'd, but it's definitely autopilot."[11]

Digital Spy was in the middle saying:

"Boasting three of the biggest stars from the worlds of hip-hop and R&B, 'Run This Town' was never going to be a flop, but neither is it a roaring success. Kanye's slick rapping ("Reebok baby, you need to drop some new things, have you ever had shoes without shoestrings?") and Rihanna's "hey-hey" chorus hook make Jay-Z seem surplus to requirements, which surely can't have been the aim. The chaotic military march beats are impressive - and hats off to Jigga for snubbing Auto-Tune - but this track still doesn't seem fitting of an artist considered a groundbreaking rap legend.[12]

Chart performance

"Run This Town" climbed to number 3 during its third week on the Billboard Hot 100 after debuting at number 88 and climbing to number 66 in week two.[13] It is Jay-Z's highest charting song of his career as a lead artist. The song has so far sold 517,137 in the U.S.[14]

It also debuted at #16 on the Irish Singles Chart, based on downloads alone, and then peaked at #4 the following week.[15] The song was released digitally on August 30 in UK. During its second day of release it reached #1 on the UK iTunes Chart after knocking off another new release "Get Sexy" by the Sugababes. According to the UK Midweek Charts, Get Sexy was in pole position to reach #1 in the UK Singles Chart but Run This Town outsold it and went to #1. On September 6, "Run This Town" entered the UK Singles Chart at number-one, giving Jay-Z his first UK number-one as a lead artist, his fourth overall ("Crazy In Love," "Deja Vu" and "Umbrella" being the other three.) Rihanna and Kanye West also received their third number ones. The song sold 62,000 copies in it's first week,[16]

On the issue dated September 14, 2009, the song debuted at number 66 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart.[17] On it's second week it jumped to #25 and has currently peaked at #13.[18]

"Run This Town" has so far appeared on 18 charts, half of which peaked inside the top ten, and has also received 2 number ones on UK Singles Chart and U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks.

Music video

The video was directed by Anthony Mandler and was filmed on August 6, 2009 at Fort Totten Park in New York City. The video was leaked on August 19, 2009 by MTV Germany.

The video premiered on August 20th on MTV, as well other MTV channels across the world, and the internet.[19] Anthony Mandler the director of the music video had this to say:[20]

"There's a tone and feeling to the song, there's a militia, a march and a kind of rambunctious energy to it that, for me, I immediately wanted to tap into. I showed [Jay] some references from the classic rebellious zones of the world. We live in very orderly society in America, but when you get into Brazil, you get into the Middle East, you get into Africa, you get into Eastern Europe, when you get into places like that, there's a different sort of 'we run this town' [going on]. There's less order and more chaos. So we looked at a lot of those references, new photos and historical photos, to capture that kind of falling-apart feeling."

"We wanted you to feel uneasy throughout the piece," he said. "We wanted there to be a constant layer of tension through the piece. Even in the way I shot — where the camera comes by Jay, it doesn't stop on him, it goes to Rihanna — there's kind of this chaos of revealing and covering and concealing. And things happen offscreen that you don't see. I think people are really gonna flip on this". The video was released to iTunes on August 25, 2009.

The video starts out with people in masks and holding torches walking. Then Rihanna takes the bandana from covering her mouth and starts to sing her verse. Then Jay-Z does his verse while in a temple-like area. Kanye West does the same thing but in a cave-like area holding a torch and having a bandana cover his face.

Track listing

  • US/UK CD single
  1. "Run This Town" (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West) - 4:36
  2. "Run This Town" (Bad City Rollerz Disco Mix) (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West) - 6:17

Charts

Chart (2009) Peak
Position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart[21] 13
Austrian Singles Chart[22] 29
Belgium Singles Chart[23] 37
Canadian Hot 100[24] 6
Danish Singles Chart[25] 21
Dutch Singles Chart[26] 20
Eurochart Hot 100 Singles[27] 5
German Singles Chart[28] 18
Irish Singles Chart[29] 3
Japan Hot 100[30] 42
New Zealand Singles Chart[31] 10
Norwegian Singles Chart[32] 7
Swedish Singles Chart[33] 8
Swiss Singles Chart[34] 9
UK Singles Chart[35] 1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[36] 2
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs[27] 4
U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks[27] 1

Preceded by UK Singles Chart number-one single
September 6, 2009 		Succeeded by
Preceded by U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks number one single
September 17, 2009 		Succeeded by
-

References

  1. ^ Herrera, Monica (2009-08-08). "Run This Town". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  2. ^ Eng, Joyce (2009-08-07). "Rihanna, Jay-Z and Kanye West to Kick Off Jay Leno Show". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  3. ^ Hayden, Samantha (2009-08-06). "Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye To Welcome Jay Leno To Primetime". Billboard. Nielsen Business Meida, Inc. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  4. ^ Reid, Shaheem (2009-06-19). "Drake Is Glad He's 'Delivering' With Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige Collabos". MTV. MTV Networks. Retrieved 2009-07-30.
  5. ^ Reid, Shaheem (2009-07-22). "Jay-Z Denies Blackballing Chris Brown From BET Awards". MTV. MTV Networks. Retrieved 2009-07-30.
  6. ^ Reid, Shaheem (2009-07-24). "Jay-Z's 'Run This Town' Makes Radio Debut". MTV. MTV Networks. Retrieved 2009-07-30.
  7. ^ "R&R :: Going For Adds :: ­Urban". R&R. Retrieved 2009-08-12. {{cite web}}: soft hyphen character in |title= at position 26 (help)
  8. ^ Lewis, Pete (2009-08-20). "Jay-Z: A B&S Classic Interview December 1998". Blues & Soul. B&S. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
  9. ^ Kreps, Daniel (2009-07-24). "Rihanna Returns and Kanye West Shines on Jay-Z's "Run This Town"". Rolling Stone. Jann Wenner. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  10. ^ "About.com". About.com. 2009-09-19. Retrieved 2009-09-19.
  11. ^ "Run This Town Music Review". Pitchfork Media. 2009-09-19. Retrieved 2009-09-19.
  12. ^ "Run This Town". DigitalSpy. 2009-09-19. Retrieved 2009-09-19.
  13. ^ "Week Ending Aug. 16, 2009: King Of Country Boots King Of Pop - Chart Watch". New.music.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  14. ^ ""Run This Town": Billboard Hot 100 – September 9, 2009". CornerOfRihanna. 2009-09-19. Retrieved 2009-09-19.
  15. ^ ">> IRMA << Irish Charts - Singles, Albums & Compilations >>". Irma.ie. 2009-09-10. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  16. ^ "Pandora Archive". Pandora.nla.gov.au. 2006-08-23. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  17. ^ "Pandora Archive" (PDF). Pandora.nla.gov.au. 2006-08-23. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  18. ^ "ARIA". ARIA. 2009-09-14. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help); Unknown parameter |http://www.ariacharts.com.au/pages/charts_display_singles.asp?chart= ignored (help)
  19. ^ Rodriguez, Jayson (2009-08-14). "Jay-Z's 'Run This Town' Video: Check Out A Preview Here!". Mtv.com. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  20. ^ "World premiere: Jay-Z 'Run this town' video". Examiner.com. 2009-09-14. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  21. ^ "Australia Singes Top 50". Australian Recording Industry Association. acharts.us. September 21, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  22. ^ "oe3.ORF.at / Woche 37/2009". Charts.orf.at. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  23. ^ "Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West - Run This Town - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  24. ^ "Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West - Run This Town - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  25. ^ "hitlisten.nu". hitlisten.nu. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  26. ^ "Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West - Run This Town - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  27. ^ a b c http://www.billboard.com/#/song/jay-z/run-this-town/14076881
  28. ^ "Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West - Run This Town - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  29. ^ "Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West - Run This Town - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  30. ^ "Music Charts, Most Popular Music, Music by Genre & Top Music Charts". Billboard.com. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  31. ^ "Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West - Run This Town - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  32. ^ "Ukens singleliste - VG-lista. Offisielle hitlister fra og med 1958". Lista.vg.no. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  33. ^ "Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West - Run This Town - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  34. ^ "Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West - Run This Town - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  35. ^ "Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West - Run This Town - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  36. ^ "Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West - Run This Town - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2009-09-18.


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