"Thank You" is a song by American rapper

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after NFL and CFL wide receiver ...

. It was released on November 7, 2013 by

Cash Money Records Cash Money Records is an American record label founded in 1991 by brothers Ronald "Slim" Williams and Bryan "Birdman" Williams. Distributed by Republic, formerly known as Universal Republic, the label has been home to a roster of mostly hip ...

and

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

as the intended second single from his tenth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

, '' Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God''. The long-awaited album, released October 30, 2020 by

Conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** ...

and

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

, excluded both "Thank You" and " #Twerkit", the album's intended lead singles. The song features additional vocals from fellow rappers Q-Tip,

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

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 ...

. The song's

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 ...

was handled by Busta Rhymes himself. It also samples

Alicia Myers Alicia Myers (born November 20, 1957) is an American R&B musician. Beginning her music career with the band Al Hudson & the Soul Partners, who later evolved into One Way, Myers went on to a moderately successful solo career in the early 1980s, ...

' 1981 song, "I Wanna Thank You." While the song did not chart 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 stream ...

, outside of the United States, "Thank You" peaked within the top twenty of the charts in the United Kingdom.

Background

In late August 2013, "Thank You" was announced as the second single from '' Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God''. The song was revealed to be featuring

, Q-Tip and

and produced by Busta Rhymes himself. With this track, Busta wanted to end talk of friction between

G.O.O.D. Music GOOD Music (also known simply as GOOD, stylized as G.O.O.D. Music; a backronym for Getting Out Our Dreams) is an American record label founded by rapper Kanye West in 2004. The label signed an exclusive long-term worldwide label agreement with t ...

and

YMCMB Young Money Entertainment is an American record label founded by rapper Lil Wayne. Young Money's president is Lil Wayne's lifelong friend and fellow rapper Mack Maine. The label was an imprint of Cash Money Records and is distributed by Republ ...

, represented both by

and

. In an interview with

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

Busta said, "There's been a lot of talk over the last year or two about conflict between G.O.O.D. Music and Young Money and Cash Money. I just wanted to put it to bed and create an eventful moment where me and ilWayne being Young Money/Cash Money on one team, Q-Tip and Kanye estbe on another movement on G.O.O.D. Music, just showing that camaraderie and that alliance and just making it official on a real Hip Hop level." The hip hop song features verses by Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip, with ad-libs by Kanye West and Lil Wayne. The song also samples

' 1981 song, "I Wanna Thank You."

Recording

In his "The Truth" interview with Elliott Wilson, Q-Tip detailed working with Busta Rhymes on the song saying, "Busta came to my studio and we was just vibin' and he played some joints, and he played that and I was like 'Yo, what's that?'." Q-Tip then decided to get on the song and also gave Busta the idea to add Lil Wayne and Kanye West to the song.

Release and promotion

"Thank You" was originally recorded by Busta Rhymes in 2012. Q-Tip revealed the song in an interview during October 2012. He promoted the song and stated that fans should start a petition for Busta Rhymes to release the song as the first single from his upcoming album. The song's audio premiered on November 6, 2013. On November 15, 2013, "Thank You" was officially released to digital download retailers. In promotion of the single, on December 3, Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip announced a collaboration mixtape titled ''The Abstract and The Dragon''. The mixtape was released on December 12, 2013, featuring tracks recorded throughout two decades by the two rappers. The 28-song mixtape features "Thank You," and includes skits and other songs from

A Tribe Called Quest A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,Q-Tip

Missy Elliott Melissa Arnette Elliott (born July 1, 1971), better known as Missy Elliott or Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She embarked on her music career with R&B girl group Sista in the earl ...

and

Big Daddy Kane Antonio Hardy (born September 10, 1968), better known by his stage name Big Daddy Kane, is an American rapper who began his career in 1986 as a member of the Juice Crew. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential and skilled MCs in ...

Critical reception

"Thank You" received generally positive reviews 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 mu ...

s. Chris Yuscavage of ''

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

'' referred to the song as excellent.

Music video

On August 24, 2013,

Director X Julien Christian Lutz (born October 31, 1975), known professionally as Director X, is a Canadian filmmaker, commercial director, music video director, and television director. Having directed more than 100 music videos, he is widely known as a pr ...

directed the music video for "Thank You" in

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 ...

with Busta Rhymes, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Q-Tip. It was shot during the weekend of the

2013 MTV Video Music Awards The 2013 MTV Video Music Awards were held on August 25, 2013, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Marking the 30th installment of the award show, they were the first to be held in New York City not to use a venue within the borough of M ...

and various clips of it surfaced via

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

. The majority of the video was shot using a

green screen Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to ...

. On November 15, 2013, Busta Rhymes released a behind the scenes video in promotion of the video's release. On November 25, 2013, the music video was released. It features additional cameo appearances from

Mack Wilds Tristan Paul Mack Wilds (born July 15, 1989) is an American actor, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is known for his roles as Michael Lee on the HBO original drama series, ''The Wire'', and as Dixon Wilson on the CW teen drama seri ...

Mack Maine Jermaine Anthony Preyan (born July 28, 1982), better known by his stage name Mack Maine, is an American record executive, songwriter, and rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. Mack Maine has been the president of Young Money Entertainment since 2 ...

ASAP Ferg Darold Durard Brown Ferguson Jr. (born October 20, 1988), known professionally as ASAP Ferg (stylized as A$AP Ferg), is an American rapper from New York City's Harlem neighborhood. Aside from his solo career, he is a member of the hip hop collec ...

, Victor Martinez, Ayisha Diaz and

ASAP Nast Tariq Amar Devega (born July 26, 1990), better known by his stage name ASAP Nast (stylized as A$AP Nast), is an American rapper, songwriter and model from Harlem, New York. Nast is best known as a member of the hip hop collective A$AP Mob. As p ...

. The week of its release, the video was named one of the best hip hop videos of the week by '' XXL''. By December 4, 2014, the video had already received over 10 million views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

Remix

A remix featuring

Kid Capri David Anthony Love Jr. (born February 7, 1967) is an American DJ and rapper better known by his stage name Kid Capri. Early life Kid Capri's humble roots can be traced back to his parents' home in the Bronx, where ten year old David Antho ...

appeared on ''The Abstract and The Dragon'' mixtape. Kid Capri slightly adds to the bassline while adjusting the chorus a bit. He replaces Kanye West and Lil Wayne in the song as he plays the hypeman.

Track listing

Chart performance

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2013 songs 2013 singles Busta Rhymes songs Kanye West songs Lil Wayne songs Q-Tip (musician) songs Songs written by Busta Rhymes Songs written by Kanye West Songs written by Lil Wayne Cash Money Records singles Republic Records singles Songs written by Q-Tip (musician) Posse cuts