Songfacts®:

• Despite the serious title, Ross told MTV News he expects this collaboration with his Def Jam label mate Kanye West will bring people out to the dance floor. Said the Miami MC: "It's gonna be most definitely a club banger, but it has that edge to it. That's how 'Ye loves to make music, he loves to take it to the edge. That's where we went with it. It makes you feel like if you had that one record the rest of your life to play, that's it right here. It's really gonna make you feel good. We both talk about seeing the pitfalls in our rearview [mirror]. It's a feel-good record."
• West discussed working with Ross in Teflon Don: The Bossumentary, pointing to a number of similarities between the two of them. "I just remember Ross had so many verses," West said. "When I started hearing the records come out, I always felt a connection, 'cause I felt like we came from similar places and we paid so many dues. We all had ups and downs in our lives and sh--. And now, this is the highest caliber you can get to, you know what it is. And it didn't happen overnight, it's 10, 15, 20 years in the making."
• West told MTV News that he believes some of his best work has been behind the boards for other artists. "Because I'm such a notorious pop character, such a hated guy, or a loved guy, controversial or whatever it is, that people kind of forget that I sit and work hard as hell on beats." he said. "I listened to CDs for three days to find the 'Live Fast Die Young' sample, which was 'If This World Were Mine' flipped by the Bar-Kays. And I loved the sample so much that I played it for two days. Just over and over and over, and I thought about it and said, 'Claps. I want handclaps to go with this sample. That's what I need to juxtapose it and not make it just some takeoff of a '94 hip-hop song, but to make it a 2010, 2011, 2012 futuristic version of itself.' And I started the claps and put the 'hey, hey, hey' and the drums, and I just programmed it. It's kind of important for people to realize I'm a producer also."
• The song was originally recorded during Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy rap camp in Hawaii. The sessions produced four songs that ultimately landed on MBDTF: "Power," "Monster," "Gorgeous," and "Lost in The World." However, West decided that "Live Fast" should be gifted to Rick Ross.