"Go!" is the third single from the

Common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

album '' Be''. It is produced by

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

, who also performs backing vocals for the track alongside

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with ...

. The track's

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

is handled by Num Amuntehu, while its scratches are provided by

A-Trak Alain Macklovitch (born March 30, 1982), known by his stage name A-Trak, is a Canadian DJ, record producer, and record executive. He came to prominence in the late 2000s as an international club DJ and remix artist, known for incorporating highly ...

. Its beat contains a sample from "Old Smokey" by

Linda Lewis Linda Ann Fredericks (born 27 September 1950), better known as Linda Lewis, is an English vocalist, songwriter and guitarist. She is the eldest of six children, three of whom also had singing careers. She is best known for the singles " Rock-a ...

. Its lyrics deal with sexual fantasies. Two

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

es of "Go!" featuring

Joy Denalane Joy Maureen Denalane (born 11 June 1973) is a German singer-songwriter, known for her mixture of soul, R&B, and African folk music with lyrics in German and English. Early life Denalane was born in Berlin-Schöneberg to a South African father ...

were released as singles: one was remixed by Kanye West and the other by

Jazzanova Alexander Barck, Zelt Musik Festival 2015 in Freiburg, Germany Jazzanova is a German Berlin-based DJ/producer collective consisting of Alexander Barck, Claas Brieler, Jürgen von Knoblauch, Roskow Kretschmann, Stefan Leisering, and Axel Reine ...

J. Cole Jermaine Lamarr Cole (born January 28, 1985) is an American rapper and record producer. Born on a military base in Germany and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Cole initially gained recognition as a rapper following the release of his d ...

also raps over the "Go!" beat on "Knock On Wood Freestyle" on his

The Blow Up Jermaine Lamarr Cole (born January 28, 1985) is an American rapper and record producer. Born on a military base in Germany and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Cole initially gained recognition as a rapper following the release of his ...

mixtape.

Conception

Common, Kanye West and John Mayer were inspired to create a song after seeing the 2004 movie '' Ray''. They all headed to a studio where Kanye worked on a beat and Mayer told Common to write about fantasies. Despite Common's initial hesitance of being influenced by a non hip hop artist, he wrote the song and it was later recorded in two studios:

Sony Music Studios Sony Music Studios was an American music recording and mastering facility in New York City. The five-story building was a music and broadcasting complex located at 460 W. 54th Street, at 10th Avenue, in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan. I ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and Encore Studios in Burbank,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Acclaim

It was the most commercially successful song on ''Be'' as it reached #79 on

The Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming in ...

and also reached the

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

and

Hot Rap Tracks Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by ''Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio statio ...

charts. Critics attribute this success to its mellow beat, smooth vocals and subject matter. Spence D. of IGN.com writes:

Music video

A music video directed by Kanye West, MK12 and Convert was produced. It features Common relaxing in a modern house that contains rugs, couches and a large window allowing much light into the house. Common's surroundings are constantly morphing, but maintain a brown and beige color scheme. As a preface to various scenes in which Common fulfills fantasies with women, phrases such as "body of a dancer" and "free love" appear. The end of the video features a snippet of "Faithful", the succeeding track in ''Be'' after "Go!". ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' named it the fourth best music video of 2005.

Track listing

"Go"/"Chi-City"

A-side

# "Go (LP Version)" (3:44) # "Go (Instrumental)" (3:44) # "Go (Radio Edit)" (3:44) # "Go (Accapella)" (3:44)

B-side

# "Chi-City (LP Version)" (3:27) # "Chi-City (Instrumental)" (3:27) # "Chi-City (Radio Edit)" (3:27) # "Chi-City (Accapella)" (3:27)

"Go! (Jazzanova Remix)"

A-side

# "Go! (Jazzanova Remix Main)" (4:08) # "Go! (Jazzanova Remix Clean)" (4:07)

B-side

# "Go! (Original Remix)" (3:43) # "Go! (Jazzanova Remix Instrumental)" (4:07)

"Go! (Remix)"/"The Corner (Remix)"

A-side

# "Go! (Remix)" (3:47) # "Go! (Original Version)" (3:45)

B-side

# "Go! (Instrumental)" (3:44) # "The Corner (Remix)" (4:10)

Personnel

*Produced by

*Recorded by Andrew Dawson at Sony Studios and Encore Studios, Burbank *Assistant Recording Engineers: Taylor Dow, Ric McRae and Francis Forde *Mixed by Manny Marroquin at Larrabee North Studio,

North Hollywood North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North ...

*Assistant Mix Engineer: Jared Robbins *Background Vocals by

and Kanye West *Percussions by Num Amuntehu *Scratches by

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Go! (Common Song) 2005 singles Common (rapper) songs John Mayer songs Kanye West songs Song recordings produced by Kanye West Music videos directed by Kanye West Songs written by John Mayer Songs written by Kanye West GOOD Music singles Geffen Records singles 2005 songs Songs written by Common (rapper)

Conception

Acclaim

Music video

Track listing

"Go"/"Chi-City"

A-side

B-side

"Go! (Jazzanova Remix)"

A-side

B-side

"Go! (Remix)"/"The Corner (Remix)"

A-side

B-side

Personnel

Charts

See also

References