Beat Down is a song by music producers

Steve Aoki Steven Hiroyuki Aoki (, ; born November 30, 1977), best known as Steve Aoki, is an American DJ, record producer, music programmer, and record executive.

and

Angger Dimas Raden Angger Dimas Riyanto (born 1 March 1988) professionally known as Angger Dimas, is an Indonesian electronic musician, DJ and music producer from Jakarta, Indonesia. Angger Dimas student of 34 Senior High School, Jakarta & 68 Junior High Sch ...

, featuring vocals from Australian rapper

Iggy Azalea Amethyst Amelia Kelly (born 7 June 1990), known professionally as Iggy Azalea (), is an Australian rapper. At the age of 16, Azalea moved from Australia to the United States in order to pursue a career in music. Azalea earned public recognitio ...

. The song was included on the re-release of Aoki's debut studio album, entitled '' Wonderland (Remixed)'', which was released on July 10, 2012.

Background

Aoki released his long-awaited debut studio album, '' Wonderland,'' on January 10, 2012, featuring guest vocalists and musicians

LMFAO LMFAO (an initialism for Laughing My Freaking Ass Off or Laughing My Fucking Ass Off) are an American electronic dance music duo consisting of Redfoo and Sky Blu. Redfoo is the youngest son of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy and Nancy Le ...

Kid Cudi Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (born January 30, 1984), also known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( ), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and fashion designer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Cudi would move to New Yo ...

, Kay,

Travis Barker Travis Landon Barker (born November 14, 1975) is an American musician who serves as the drummer for the rock band Blink-182. He has also performed as a frequent collaborator with hip hop artists, is a member of the rap rock group Transpla ...

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "Will-I-am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is the founding and lead member of the musical group Black Eyed Peas. ...

aka Zuper Blahq,

Wynter Gordon Diana Gordon, previously known by her stage name Wynter Gordon, is an American singer and songwriter. She began her career writing music for other artists, later signing with Atlantic Records where she started to work on her own album. Her deb ...

Rivers Cuomo Rivers Cuomo ( ; born June 13, 1970) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and songwriter of the rock band Weezer. Cuomo was raised in a number of Buddhist communities in the Northeast U.S. until the age of 10, wh ...

Lil Jon Jonathan H. Smith (born January 17, 1971) better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American rapper, producer and former frontman of the rap group Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz. He was instrumental in the emergence of the hip hop subgenre cru ...

Chiddy Bang Chidera Anamege, now known by his stage name Chiddy Bang, is an American rapper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to its breakup, Chiddy Bang was an American hip hop duo consisting of Anamege, under the stage name Chiddy, and Noah Beresin, ...

Lovefoxxx Luísa Hanae Matsushita (born February 25, 1984), known by her stage name Lovefoxxx, is the lead singer of the Brazilian indie band Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS). Early life and career Lovefoxxx was born in Campinas, Brazil. She is of Portuguese, G ...

CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone techno ...

Big John Duncan John Duncan (born August 14, 1958), better known as Big John Duncan, is a musician and guitarist. He is best known as the guitarist for The Exploited during their classic lineup of 1979 – 1984.Strong, Martin C. (2001) ''The Great Metal Discogr ...

(former guitarist of the punk band

The Exploited The Exploited are a Scottish punk rock band from Edinburgh, formed in 1979 by Stevie Ross and Terry Buchan, with Buchan soon replaced by his brother Wattie Buchan. They signed to Secret Records in March 1981,Dim Mak The touch of death (or death-point striking) refers to any martial arts technique reputed to kill using seemingly less than lethal force targeted at specific areas of the body. The concept known as ''dim mak'' (), alternatively ' () traces its ...

. A remix album was released shortly after, on July 10, 2012, ''Wonderland (Remixed)'', featuring a new original track that would become the lead single of the project, "Beat Down," with fellow Indonesian electronic producer/DJ Angger Dimas and also featured up-and-coming Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, who had been featured on the cover of hip-hop magazine XXL's buzzed-about annual " Top 10 Freshman List" and announced signing a deal with Southern rapper T.I.'s

Grand Hustle Records Grand Hustle Records (formerly Grand Hustle Entertainment), also known as Hustle Gang Music, is an Atlanta, Georgia-based hip hop record label, founded in 2003, by American rapper T.I. and his manager Jason Geter. Up until December 2012, the lab ...

Critical reception

Becky Bain of

Idolator An idolator is a practitioner of idolatry. Idolater or Idolator may also refer to: Books *''Os Idólatras'', 1968 Portuguese novel by Maria Judite de Carvalho Music * Idolator (website), an American music blog * ''Idolator'' (album), third album ...

claimed the track is "a solid tune that is ready to pump you up" and complimented Azalea's guest appearance adding that "the Aussie rapper lays down some serious flow." DJ Booth also praised it saying, "If you're a fan of EDM and a lover of 808s and snares, then you'll probably wear out the repeat button after listening to this single. Iggy does surprisingly well with the complex track as she professes that she's well versed in the art of the beat down with lyrics like, "It's a party on your face and I'm about to dance on it"," while

Noisey ''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, ...

drew comparisons to

Major Lazer Major Lazer is an American electronic dance music DJ trio, which includes record producer Diplo, and DJs Walshy Fire and Ape Drums. It originates from Kingston, Jamaica, and was founded in 2008 by Diplo and Switch, with Switch leaving after t ...

's 2009 single " Pon de Floor".

Chart performance

While the song only made it to number 44 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, a comparative disappointment compared with Aoki's 2010 single " I'm in the House", featuring Zuper Blahq and his 2011 single " No Beef" featuring

Afrojack Nick Leonardus van de Wall (; born 9 September 1987), better known as Afrojack, is a Dutch DJ, music producer and remixer from Spijkenisse, South Holland. In 2007, he founded the record label Wall Recordings; his debut album '' Forget the World' ...

and Alyssa Palma, it served as a platform for Azalea, who went on to have three

Top 20 A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include rec ...

hits in 2014. "Beat Down" first entered the

UK Dance Chart The UK Dance Singles Chart and the UK Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the dance music genre (e.g. house, trance, drum and bass, garage, synthpop) in record ...

at number 21 and the

UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the rele ...

at number 13 on June 2, 2012. It reappeared three months later with greater success peaking at number 44 in the UK Singles Chart and number 10 in the UK Dance Chart. A week later, it fell back down to number 22 in the UK Dance Chart.

Live performances and other use

Aoki, Dimas and Azalea have included the track on their live shows setlists regularly since its release, including the rapper's 2014

The New Classic Tour The New Classic Tour is the debut concert tour by Australian recording artist Iggy Azalea. The tour promoted her debut studio album, ''The New Classic''. Beginning April 2014, the tour played 15 concerts in North America, with plans to perform a ...

. "Beat Down" was also featured on the 2015 romantic comedy film '' Trainwreck''.

Music video

The official music video, directed by Alex/2Tone o
What You Steal productions
was released on July 19, 2012. Aoki, Azalea and Dimas all make appearances in the visuals.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2012 singles Steve Aoki songs Iggy Azalea songs Songs written by Iggy Azalea Ultra Music singles Songs written by Steve Aoki Moombahton songs