"Forever" is a song by

rappers Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

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 ...

Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September 27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. His career began in 1995, at the age of 12, when he was signed by rapper Birdman, joining ...

, and Eminem. Written alongside producer

Boi-1da Matthew Jehu Samuels (born October 12, 1986), known professionally as Boi-1da ( , a play on "boy wonder"), is a Jamaican-Canadian Record production, record producer and songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario. The Toronto raised producer has work ...

, the song was originally released as the third single from the soundtrack to

LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest p ...

's '' More than a Game'' documentary and was placed on the ''

Refill "Refill" is a song by American singer-songwriter and R&B recording artist Elle Varner. The song, produced by Andrew "Pop" Wansel, was released on January 31, 2012 as a digital download, and serves as the second single from her debut studio ...

'' re-release of Eminem's album ''Relapse''. Eminem performed his verse of the song at the American Music Awards of 2009. Drake performed the song with Lil Wayne, Eminem, and

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 Tran ...

at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. A

demo Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to: Music and film *Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release * ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes * ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...

version of the song was leaked in mid-2008. It is often referred to as the greatest posse cut in rap history.

Background

The track was produced by

and originally used by

Kardinal Offishall Jason Drew Harrow (born May 11, 1976), better known by his stage name Kardinal Offishall (), is a Canadian rapper, record producer, DJ, and record executive. Often credited as Canada's " hip hop ambassador", he is regarded as one of the countr ...

featuring Rock City in early 2008, as "Bring It Back". Kardinal did not use the song for his album and it was later re-sold to Drake, who released it in late 2008 as "I Want This Forever" featuring Lil Wayne and Kidd Kidd. In an interview, Kardinal stated that his version was a leaked

which was supposed to appear on his album '' Not 4 Sale'', as well as a soundtrack. The 2009 version of "Forever" features

, and Eminem. Rapper Jay-Z called it the best posse cut of the decade. The song title is derived from the last line of the chorus; ''I want this **** forever man''. The song gained a lot of attention from Eminem fans especially due to the story behind the song. According to an interview with Kanye West talking about the song, he said, "When I heard Eminem's verse on the Drake ****, I went back and rewrote my **** for two days. I cancelled appointments to rewrite!" Similarly, Lil Wayne rewrote his verse after hearing Eminem's. In response to this, Eminem told Complex, "Everybody approached the beat different ��For some reason, I felt the beat was a double-time beat, so I rapped faster."

Music video

The music video was shot in

Fontainebleau Hotel The Fontainebleau Miami Beach (also known as Fontainebleau Hotel) is a hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. Designed by Morris Lapidus, the luxury hotel opened in 1954. In 2007, the Fontainebleau Hotel was ranked ninety-third in the American Institute ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, in early September 2009. However, Eminem's part in the video was shot in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

due to scheduling conflicts and not being able to be in Miami. The music video was shot and directed by

Hype Williams Harold Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video director, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Early life Williams was born in Queens, New York. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adel ...

. It premiered on September 22, 2009 on

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

's musical program

106 & Park ''106 & Park'' is an American hip hop and R&B music video show, set up in a countdown format, that was broadcast on weekdays at 6:00 pm ET/5:00 pm CT on BET; it aired on a one-day delay on BET International. It was the network's highest- rate ...

appears in the opening of the music video in the back seat of a

Maybach Maybach (, ) is a German luxury car brand that exists today as a part of Mercedes-Benz. The original company was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach and his son Karl Maybach, originally as a subsidiary of ''Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH'', and ...

playing online poker on

PokerStars PokerStars is an online poker cardroom that was a part of The Stars Group until it was sold to Flutter Entertainment on May 5, 2020. It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It is the l ...

on his customized Beats by Dr. Dre's laptop. Throughout the video, there are clips and pictures from the documentary about James, '' More than a Game'', and of him as a child playing basketball. Also

The Alchemist An alchemist is a person who practices alchemy. Alchemist or Alchemyst may also refer to: Books and stories * ''The Alchemist'' (novel), the translated title of a 1988 allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho * ''The Alchemist'' (play), a play by Be ...

, Trick-Trick, Mr. Porter, Swifty McVay, Kuniva, Bizarre and Slaughterhouse all make cameo appearances in Eminem's verse of the video behind him as he raps his verse. Birdman makes a cameo appearances in the video on

's verse, sitting next to him in the VIP section of the club. The music video was produced alongside the video for "

Money to Blow "Money to Blow" is the third single from rapper Birdman’s fourth studio album, '' Priceless''. The song features Young Money/Cash Money artists Drake and Lil Wayne. The song - leaked in early 2008 - was originally by Drake, but he went on to giv ...

Critical reception

Jason Thurston of Allmusic.com marked the song as one of the standout tracks of the album, writing: "The record hits a high point early on the six-minute epic 'Forever,' a convention of rap's wordsmiths as Kanye West, Drake, Lil Wayne, and Eminem pass the baton over a dark, soulful, slightly mournful beat, separated by an echoing modern R&B Auto-Tune hook." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic.com also highlighted the song, and commented: " Forever'is none too coincidentally the one track in the entirety of Eminem's 2009 comeback that feels utterly modern." Entertainment Weekly was positive: "Those who frequent hip-hop blogs will already be acquainted with the strongest material, like Drake's ''Forever'' — where the rookie teams with all-stars Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Eminem" and it was also on Download This list.

Chart performance

"Forever" entered the U.S. '' Billboard''

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 ...

at number fifty-eight on September 3, 2009, peaking at #2. The song became the most downloaded song for the week ending September 15, 2009. On the week of September 24, the song debuted at #8 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, making it Drake's highest debut on the chart at the time as well as his second top-ten single. it also topped the rap songs chart making it Drake's second number one on that chart. It was the tenth consecutive top 40 single for Eminem. The song has sold 3,265,000 digital copies in the US as of April 2013, becoming Drake's first 3 million-seller. "Forever" failed to enter the Top 40 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 ...

, but did manage to peak at number 43 after strong downloads. The song then began to drop out of the UK Singles Chart, but on January 10, 2010, "Forever" climbed 7 places from number 49 to 42, marking its highest peak to date. "Forever" entered the Irish Singles Chart, reaching a current peak of number 41.

Awards and nominations

Track listing

;Digital download

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Forever (Drake Song) 2009 singles Drake (musician) songs Kanye West songs Eminem songs Lil Wayne songs Song recordings produced by Boi-1da Songs written by Eminem Songs written by Kanye West Songs written by Lil Wayne Songs written by Drake (musician) 2009 songs Songs written by Boi-1da Posse cuts Music videos directed by Hype Williams Universal Motown Records singles Young Money Entertainment singles Cash Money Records singles