"Run It!" is the debut single by American recording artist

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. According to '' Billboard'', Brown is one of the most successful R&B singers of his generation, having often been referred to by many contempo ...

. It was produced by

Scott Storch Scott Spencer Storch (born December 16, 1973) is an American record producer and songwriter. He started off as a keyboardist for the group the Roots. Early life Storch was born on Long Island, New York. He was raised in South Florida and Phila ...

and written by

Sean Garrett Garrett Robin Hamler, known professionally as Sean Garrett, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is responsible for a series of chart-topping compositions, most notably Usher's " Yeah!" which ranks second on the ''Billboa ...

alongside guest artist

Juelz Santana LaRon Louis James (born February 18, 1982), better known by his stage name Juelz Santana, is an American rapper and member of East Coast hip hop group The Diplomats, also known as Dipset. He is best known for his appearances on Cam'ron's 2002 si ...

. The song appeared on his debut studio album, ''

'', and was released as a single on June 30, 2005. The remix features rappers Bow Wow and

Jermaine Dupri Jermaine Dupri Mauldin (born September 23, 1972) is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, record executive, entrepreneur, and DJ. Early life Jermaine Dupri Mauldin was born on September 23, 1972, the son of Tina (Mosley) and Michael ...

and was performed at the 2006 ''

Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards The Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards (also known as the KCAs or Kids' Choice) is an annual American children's awards ceremony show that is produced by Nickelodeon. Usually held on a Saturday night in late March or early April, the show honors ...

'' by Bow Wow and Chris Brown. Commercially, the song peaked inside the top ten in six countries and the top twenty in other four. The song also managed to top the charts in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The music video earned nominations at the

2006 MTV Video Music Awards The 2006 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on August 31, 2006, honoring the best music videos from June 11, 2005, to June 26, 2006. The show was hosted by Jack Black at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The 2006 Video Music Awards marked th ...

for "

Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967. The official guidelines are as ...

" and " Viewer's Choice". Also in 2006, the radio version of the song appeared on the compilation album '' Now That's What I Call Music! 21''

Background and composition

"Run It" was released as Brown's debut single on June 30, 2005, through

digital distribution Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of digital media content (media), content such as Sound recording and reproductio ...

. On July 19, 2005, Jive and

Zomba Records The Zomba Group of Companies (sometimes referred to as Zomba Music Group or just Zomba Group) was a music group and division owned by and operated under Sony Music Entertainment. The division was renamed to Jive Label Group in 2009 and was place ...

serviced the song to rhythmic crossover radio in the United States. They later solicited the song to

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...

on October 3, 2005. "Run It" was written and produced by

and

. It interpolates

The Waitresses The Waitresses were an American new wave band from Akron, Ohio, best known for their singles " I Know What Boys Like" and " Christmas Wrapping." They released two albums, ''Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?'' and '' Bruiseology'', and two EPs, '' I Co ...

' 1980 single " I Know What Boys Like", written by

Christopher Butler Christopher Butler (7 May 1902 – 20 September 1986), born Basil Butler, was a convert from the Church of England to the Roman Catholic Church, a Bishop, a scholar, and a Benedictine Monk. After his Solemn Profession as a Monk and his Or ...

. The track is composed in the key of C# minor as a

Crunk&B Crunk is a subgenre of hip hop music that emerged in the early 1990s and gained mainstream success during the mid 2000s. Crunk is often up-tempo and one of Southern hip hop's more dance and club oriented subgenres. An archetypal crunk track fre ...

song that consists of slinky synth beats, a catchy chorus, an ominous, creepy background, and elements of Scott Storch productions. Brown's vocals have been described as "sweet" and "baby mack"-like. Christian Hoard of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' called the song "a de- crunked ' Yeah!' that gets by thanks to a slinky synth beat and the mix of smooth seduction and cunning come-ons in Brown's baby-mack vocals." The song features rap verses from American hip-hop recording artist

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Run It!" was released on August 8, 2005. Directed by

Erik White Erik White is an American music video director. In 2010, he made his feature film directorial debut with the comedy film ''Lottery Ticket'', starring rappers Bow Wow and Ice Cube. He appeared on the reality show competition ''The Glee Project' ...

, it portrays an underground dance inside a school gym, where Brown meets a girl (

Destiny Lightsy Destiny Lightsy is an American actress, singer and dancer who serves as the co-host for the third season of MTV's reality game show '' Yo Momma'', hosted by Wilmer Valderrama. Destiny has appeared in the movies ''You Got Served'', ''Fat Albert'' ...

) that he is suddenly attracted to and with whom he wants to dance. The video features several dance sequences in which the males and females dance off against each other. During the sequences, Brown makes several movements toward his love interest. At the end, Brown and his love interest are about to kiss before the

security guard A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) from a variety ...

s arrive, and the whole gym is evacuated, with both of them pulled in separate directions. However, as soon as the guards find nobody there, they start dancing. The music video received two nominations at the

for "Best New Artist" and "Viewer's Choice", but lost to Avenged Sevenfold's "Bat Country" and Fall Out Boy's "Dance, Dance", respectively.

Critical reception

Bill Lamb of

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...

awarded "Run It!" a four-star rating, commending the song's backing music, Brown's voice, and chorus, but called it "another cookie cutter Scott Storch production." Andy Kellman of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

noted it as one of the album's top tracks, commenting that the song's "way of tempering Brown's small-town innocence with hard-edged backing and a guest spot from an MC of ill repute is clearly a strategy to make the singer appeal to more than tween girls." Christian Hoard of ''

'' said that the song gets by "thanks to a slinky synth beat and the mix of smooth seduction and cunning come-ons in Brown's baby-mack vocals."

Chart performance

"Run It!" debuted at number 92 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the issue dated August 27, 2005. After eight weeks on the chart, the song entered the top ten at number eight on October 22, 2005, receiving the airplay gainer title. It gained the airplay title again in the following week, climbing to number two on the chart, where it stalled for a month. On November 26, 2005, "Run It!" peaked on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number one, becoming Brown's first number one single on the chart, and making him the third youngest solo artist to top the chart, behind only

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

and

Peggy March Peggy March (born Margaret Annemarie Battavio, March 8, 1948) is an American popular music, pop singer. In the United States, she is primarily known for her 1963 Music recording certification, million-selling song "I Will Follow Him". Although sh ...

, and the fourth youngest overall. That same week, the song was also at the top of the US

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 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 ...

and the US Radio Songs. Two weeks later, it topped the US

Pop Songs Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/ CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the Un ...

chart. The song remained on top of the Hot 100 for five weeks, becoming his longest lasting number one single on the chart. It was certified

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA) for shipments of one million copies. "Run It!" debuted and peaked at number one on the

Australian Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

in the issue dated January 29, 2006. The song remained at the top of the chart for three non-consecutive weeks and exited after fifteen weeks. It earned a gold certification from the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing th ...

(ARIA), denoting shipments of 35,000 copies. In New Zealand, the song entered the singles chart at number 39 on the week ending January 2, 2006. Six weeks later, the song peaked at the top of the chart, where it remained for one month. "Run It!" entered the

Swiss Singles Chart The Swiss Hitparade (german: link=no, Schweizer Hitparade) is Switzerland's main Record chart, music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland. The Swiss charts include: * ...

at number twelve on the week ending February 12, 2006. In the next week, it peaked at number five and remained in the top ten for six consecutive weeks.

Credits

–

songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

– songwriting, production * Brian Stanley –

mix engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

* Val Braithwaite – assistant mix engineer * Mike Tschupp – assistant mix engineer * Herb Powers, Jr. –

mastering engineer A mastering engineer is a person skilled in the practice of taking audio (typically musical content) that has been previously mixed in either the analog or digital domain as mono, stereo, or multichannel formats and preparing it for use in distr ...

* Charles McCrorey – recording engineer * Conrad Golding – recording engineer * Wayne Allison – recording engineer Credits adapted from ''

'' liner notes, Columbia Records.

Track listings

;US CD single #"Run It!" (feat. Juelz Santana) - 3:49 #"Run It!" (Main Version) - 3:15 #"Run It!" (Instrumental) - 3:14 #"Run It!" (Video) - 4:09 ;European CD single #"Run It!" (feat. Juelz Santana) - 3:49 #"I May Never Find" - 4:35 ;European CD single #"Run It!" (feat. Juelz Santana) - 3:49 #"Run It! (Remix)" (feat. Bow Wow & Jermaine Dupri ) - 4:04 #"Run It!" (Main Version - No Rap) - 3:15 #"Run It!" (Instrumental) - 3:14 #"Run It!" (Video) - 4:09 ;Special Dutch CD Edition #"Run It!" (feat. Juelz Santana) - 3:50 #"Run It!" (feat. The Partysquad) - 3:22 ;Vinyl #"Run It!" (feat. Juelz Santana) - 3:50 #"Run It!" (Main Version) - 3:14 ;Vinyl remix #"Run It! (Remix)" (feat. Bow Wow & Jermaine Dupri) - 4:04 #"Run It! (Remix)"" (Instrumental) - 4:04

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

Radio and release history

References

{{Juelz Santana 2005 debut singles Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Chris Brown songs Juelz Santana songs Number-one singles in Australia European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Number-one singles in New Zealand Song recordings produced by Scott Storch Songs written by Sean Garrett Songs written by Scott Storch Music videos directed by Erik White Songs written by Juelz Santana 2005 songs Crunk songs Jive Records singles Zomba Group of Companies singles