Look at Me Now

Album: F.A.M.E. (2011)
Charted: 44 6
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Songfacts®:

  • This club jam is the second single by American R&B singer Chris Brown's fourth studio album, titled F.A.M.E. Brown posted a link to the song via his Twitter account at midnight on New Year's Day, January 1, 2011, making it the first new song of the 21st century's second decade. It was then made available for download in the United States on February 1, 2011.
  • The song features Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes and finds Brown rapping with the two hip-hop heavyweights, as he does throughout his mixtapes. In an interview just before headlining Wild 94.9's annual Wild Jam holiday concert in San Jose, California, Breezy said of his rapping: "It's actually fun. I just try to play with it. I don't consider myself a rapper. I'm just having fun with music."
  • The album title stands for "Forgiving All My Enemies," and is named after a tattoo Brown got in July 2010.
  • The song was produced by the Philadelphia producer, Diplo. According to Dutch producer Afrojack, the song is the product of a beat he passed along to Diplo. In an interview with MTV News, he said "Diplo called me ... [and] he was like, 'We are in the studio right now, and we are gonna do a track on the beat.' And I was like, 'OK, whatever. Have fun."

    "Busta's verse on it is really sick," he continued. "It's like I can't even hear what he said, but I love the part where he goes [mimics Busta's rapid flow], and then pauses and goes rapping really quickly. And I don't know how to do it, I don't even try. But it was really, really cool."
  • The song's music video was shot in Los Angeles on February 16, 2011 with director Colin Tilley, who had previously helmed the visuals for "Yeah 3x" and "Deuces". "That's my first rap kind of video," Brown told MTV News. "And I wanted to do old school; well, not old school, but like back in the day, when I was growing up as a kid. The '90s feel and big, baggy clothes. It's abstract, a lot of art and graffiti. I tried to blend it all as one to make it exciting."

    Some of the frames feature Brown clad in the Brooklyn cap and glasses that Spike Lee's character, "Mars Blackmon", wore in the Air Jordan ads. "I kind of did the Mars Blackmon outfit with the Brooklyn [hat] and the whole [outfit], I always was a fan of that and that was always fresh to me when I saw Spike Lee with Jordan," Brown explained to MTV News. "So I was like, man, I'mma do that outfit just to pay tribute to him."
  • Better known as an R&B singer, Chris Brown achieved his first #1 on Billboard's Rap Songs chart as a lead artist with this tune. Back in 2006-07, Brown was a featured artist, along with Johnta Austin, on Bow Wow's seven-week Rap Songs chart-topper "Shortie Like Mine."
  • Colin Tilley told MTV News how the video was created: "I remember when we first got the song and Chris sent it to us: It was the first time I had heard the song, and it was so crazy to me," he recalled. "Before we do every video, I always talk to Chris to kind of feel where he's going with the song and just where his motivation was with the song, and he actually sent me this one YouTube link... It was this little '80s clip of these hip-hop dancers dancing.

    I would play it to the actual song, and at one point of the song, there were all these dancers dancing on these street elements like benches and tables and stuff like that," he continued. "From there, it just started to evolve from street elements and this whole underground vibe to just getting crazier and crazier. I wanted to make sure it was really exciting."
  • Plenty of MCs were looking at Brown after the song spent 10 weeks at the top spot on Billboard's Rap songs chart. The boastful track was Billboard's #1 rap song of 2011.
  • A few months after this song was released, the duo Karmin posted a cover on YouTube that launched their career. In the video, Karmin's vocalist, Amy Heidemann, does all the raps, keeping pace admirably on Busta's section. She also cleaned it up, taking out the curse words and substituting "on my crack" for Chris Brown's "on my d--k." Amy used cue cards when she made the video, but had to memorize the lyrics soon after when they performed it on Ellen and a few other talk shows.

    A wholesome couple with pop sensibility and a female vocalist who can fire off rapid rhymes, Karmin got the attention of the major labels and fielded offers. They went with Epic and did well, scoring hits with "Brokenhearted" and "Acapella." But after four years on the label, they wanted more control and a break from the relentless pace, so they left Epic and became independent. In 2017, they retired Karmin and Amy emerged as Qveen Herby, a rapper with attitude. Her first release was "Busta Rhymes," a tribute to the rapper and showcase for Herby's speed rapping skills.
  • Peter Dinklage lip-syncs part of Busta's verse in the "Battle" commercial for Doritos Blaze, where he rap battles Morgan Freeman, who does Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On" on behalf of Mountain Dew Ice. The spot was broadcast during the 2018 Super Bowl, where the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New England Patriots.

Comments: 1

  • Kelsey from Sandusky, Ohthis is my one of my favorite songs ever
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