"Low" is a song by American rapper

Juicy J Jordan Michael Houston III (born April 5, 1975), known professionally as Juicy J, is an American rapper and record producer. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, he is a founding member of the Southern hip hop group Three 6 Mafia, established i ...

featuring

Lil Bibby Brandon George Dickinson (born July 18, 1994), better known by his stage name Lil Bibby, is an American rapper and record executive. Beginning his career in 2011, Bibby released his debut mixtape in 2013, titled ''Free Crack''. After signing wit ...

Young Thug Jeffery Lamar Williams (born August 16, 1991), known professionally as Young Thug, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is considered to be an influential figure of his generation, with his music impacting the modern sound of hip ...

, and

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated flow in her rapping, alter egos and accent ...

. It was released on August 7, 2014, intended as the first single from the former's fourth studio album. However, it fared poorly commercially and was thereby removed from the project. "Low" was written by Juicy J, Nicki Minaj, Lil Bibby,

Dr. Luke Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald (born September 26, 1973), known professionally as Dr. Luke, Tyson Trax, and Made in China, is an American record producer and songwriter. His professional music career began in the late-night television sketch comedy ...

, Rock City, and

Cirkut Henry Russell Walter (born April 23, 1986), known professionally as Cirkut, is a Canadian record producer and songwriter. He has co-produced and co-written for Dr. Luke, Katy Perry, Becky G, Ava Max, Nicki Minaj, R. City, The Weeknd, Kesha, Ciar ...

. It was produced by Dr. Luke and Cirkut. The song received positive reception from music critics, most of it for Nicki Minaj's appearance. A music video directed by

Benny Boom Benny Douglas (born July 22, 1971), professionally known as Benny Boom, is an American director who has worked in music, television, and film. His most commercially successful film was the 2017 Tupac Shakur biopic ''All Eyez on Me''. Career Do ...

was created to promote the single.

Background and release

On August 6, 2014, Juicy J announced that the first single from his fourth studio album would be released on August 7, 2014, would be titled "Low", and would feature guest appearances from

and

. In the same announcement he also showed the single

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), music album (album art), ...

. On August 7, 2014, a snippet version of "Low" went online hours before the full song was released for digital download. In an interview with ''Bullett Media'', Juicy J spoke about the collaboration with Minaj, Bibby and Thug: "I never told anybody I had a record with Bibby or Young Thug or Nicki Minaj. The day before I dropped it, I was like, 'Yo! Guess what?' And a lot of my fans on Twitter were like, 'What?' I was like, 'I'm dropping a new single tomorrow with Lil Bibby, Young Thug, and Nicki Minaj.' They couldn't believe it. That's what I'm doing. I'm shocking people."

Critical reception

"Low" garnered a positive reception from

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...

s. Rick Florino of Artistdirect.com gave praise to the song's beat and the lyrics from all three rappers, calling it "another bona fide anthem from the king of all things." Joey DeGroot of Music Times praised the production and likened Nicki's Minaj's verse more than Juicy J's, saying, "While Juicy's rhymes are pretty laidback, Nicki's completely blow everything apart, spitting furiously with her trademark taunt." Brennan Carley of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' also credited the song to Minaj's appearance, saying she "demonstrates her lyrical prowess with rhymes like, "I'm fly every day but a bitch ain't trippin' / You be on that bull, you be on Scottie Pippen."

Music video

Directed by

, the video features the rappers at a barbecue cookout and an empty warehouse with vehicles and speakers with colored smoke coming out of them. Young Thug does not appear in the video. The video premiered online on August 21, 2014.

Track listing

Charts

References

External links

* * {{authority control 2014 singles 2014 songs Juicy J songs Nicki Minaj songs Young Thug songs Music videos directed by Benny Boom Song recordings produced by Dr. Luke Songs written by Theron Thomas Songs written by Timothy Thomas Songs written by Dr. Luke Songs written by Nicki Minaj Songs written by Juicy J Songs written by Young Thug Songs written by Cirkut (record producer) Kemosabe Records singles