"We Up" is a song by American hip hop

recording artist A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

50 Cent Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced ...

. It was originally released as the third official single from his upcoming fifth studio album ''Street King Immortal'', but was later removed from the project. It was officially released to public on March 22, 2013, on

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...

account, and made available for purchase on March 25, 2013. The song features American rapper and Aftermath labelmate Kendrick Lamar, and production from Roc Nation producer Davaughn. It uses a sample from " Something About Us" by

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...

, who received a songwriting credit. The song was released to

Rhythmic contemporary radio Rhythmic contemporary, also known as Rhythmic Top 40, Rhythmic CHR or rhythmic crossover, is a primarily American music-radio format that includes a mix of EDM, upbeat rhythmic pop, hip hop and upbeat R&B hits. Rhythmic contemporary never uses ...

on May 28, 2013.

Background

A different version of the song came out as a preview in January featuring 50 Cent's two verses and one by Kidd Kidd, which was later removed from the final version of the song. It was also intended to be a song of Kidd Kidd's mixtape, but ended up being 50's song. The full version of it, featuring Kidd Kidd, Kendrick Lamar and only one verse by 50 Cent, was released on February 15, 2013. The single version of 'We Up' was released on March 22, 2013, with Kidd Kidd removed from the track. A verse by 50 previewed in January, which wasn't on its full version, was re-added to it. It was made available for purchase on digital retailers, such as

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

and

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

, on March 25, 2013.

Music video

Two music videos were shot, for different versions of the song. The first one released, called "video before the video", didn't include appearances from Kendrick Lamar though his verse was still played. It had 50 Cent and Kidd Kidd in it, holding bottles and wearing suits while singing their parts as it was already shown in the song's preview. The video for song's single version was shot in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. A

behind-the-scenes In film, cinema, behind-the-scenes (BTS), also known as the making-of, the set, or on the set, is a type of documentary film that features the Filmmaking#Production, production of a film or television program. This is often referred to as the E ...

video was featured in

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...

's series Behind the Music mastered episode of 50 Cent aired in March. It came out on March 25, 2013, on 50 Cent's

VEVO Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, di ...

channel. Both videos were directed by fellow video director Eif Rivera.

Live performances

While performing at Roseland Ballroom 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 ...

on February 27, 2013, Kendrick Lamar brought out 50 Cent for ''We Ups performance, along with

G-Unit G-Unit (short for Guerilla Unit) was an American hip hop group formed by longtime friends and East Coast rappers 50 Cent, Tony Yayo, and Lloyd Banks. After amassing a string of self-released mixtapes in the early 2000s, the group released th ...

rapper

Tony Yayo Marvin Bernard (born March 31, 1978), better known by his stage name Tony Yayo, is an American rapper. He is best known as a member of G-Unit, a hip hop group he formed with his childhood friends 50 Cent and Lloyd Banks. Yayo released his deb ...

Track listing

;Digital download #"We Up" - 3:18

Credits and personnel

* Songwriter(s) –

Curtis Jackson Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced ...

, Davaughn Lennard,

Kendrick Duckworth Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper and songwriter. Known for his progressive musical styles and socially conscious songwriting, he is often considered one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generat ...

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo Guillaume Emmanuel "Guy-Manuel" de Homem-Christo (; born 8 February 1974) is a French musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, DJ and composer. He is known as one half of the former French house music duo Daft Punk, along with Thomas Bang ...

Thomas Bangalter Thomas Bangalter (; born 3 January 1975) is a French musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, DJ and composer. Son of French music composer and artist Daniel Vangarde. He is best known as one half of the former French house music duo Daft ...

Producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

– Davaughn

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Release history

References

External links

* {{Kendrick Lamar songs 2013 singles 50 Cent songs Kendrick Lamar songs Songs written by 50 Cent Songs written by Kendrick Lamar Shady Records singles Aftermath Entertainment singles Interscope Records singles 2013 songs Songs written by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo Songs written by Thomas Bangalter