"Love Lockdown " is a pop/R&B song written and produced by American hip hop artist Kanye West for his fourth studio album, 808s & Heartbreak . West premiered the song at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards and released it as the album's lead single on September 18, 2008. Despite being a drastic departure from his previous work, the song was well received by critics, and was frequently cited as a highlight of the album. Time magazine critic Josh Tyrangiel named "Love Lockdown" the best song of 2008. [1] The single was also successful commercially, as it managed to debut at number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and went on to sell over 2.5 million on iTunes. [2]

LOVE LOCKDOWN TICKETS BTS Tickets Rush Tickets Journey Tickets Shakira Tickets Bryson Tiller Tickets Earth, Wind and Fire Tickets

Background

Kanye West first debuted "Love Lockdown" on September 7, 2008 as the closing performance of the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. On September 18, he released it as the lead single of 808s & Heartbreak . After announcing it as the album's first single, West posted free copies of the song on blog for fans to download. A week later, he also posted six downloadable stems, each featuring isolated song portions of "Love Lockdown, on his blog, with the intention of enabling fans to freely remix the song for themselves. ^[3] These portions include an a capella, distorted background vocals, 808, percussion, piano, and the outro synth-beat. ^[4] The song is featured in the first episode edition of Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned on the in-game contemporary hip-hop radio station, The Beat 102.7 hosted by DJ Green Lantern. On the British teen drama Skins a portion of the song was featured in Episode 4 of Series 3, "Pandora", first aired on 12 February 2009. ^[5]

Music and structure

Inspired by 1980s synth-pop icons such as Phil Collins, Gary Numan, and Boy George, "Love Lockdown," much like 808s as a whole, is composed as a brooding, electronic-tinged pop song sung by West using the auto-tune effect and produced with the Roland TR-808 drum machine. ^[6] The song is composed in the key of C# minor, written in common time and moves at 120 beats per minute. West's monotone vocal range for the song spans nearly two octaves, from G₃ to G₅. It is written in a verse-chorus form that expresses quiet-loud dynamics, featuring verses delivered in a low, somber tone before shifting into loud, chanting choruses.

Going further against the typical sound of hip hop beat, along with the 808, the track instead makes use of tribal drums for its instrumentation. ^[7] West stated his intention was to juxtapose the mechanical sounds of the auto-tune and 808s with the more traditional sounds of taiko drums and choir monks. ^[8] The song is minimal in nature, retaining a steady bassline before building into more layered sounds within the chorus.

Chart performance

In the United States, Billboard confirmed that "Love Lockdown" sold 213,000 digital downloads in only four full days of release, therefore earning itself the title of a "Hot Shot Debut" at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and a "Hot Shot Debut" on the Pop 100 at number thirteen, where it eventually reached the eighth spot in early January. It is the highest debut of West's career, and was the second highest debut on the Hot 100 of 2008, tied with David Cook's "The Time of My Life." "Love Lockdown" is also only the tenth song of the millennium to debut in the top three, and only the second by an artist unaffiliated with American Idol . ^[9] The single also made a "Hot Shot Debut" at number five on the Canadian Hot 100. ^[10]

In Europe, "Love Lockdown" peaked at number one the UK Singles Chart and at number four on the Irish Singles Chart. It also debuted at thirty-eight in Italy and thirty-nine in Sweden. In Australia, the song debuted in its first week at thirty-seven on the ARIA Charts and peaked at number eighteen. In New Zealand, it has peaked at the eleventh spot on the RIANZ chart. On the German Singles Chart, "Love Lockdown" debuted at number eight, giving West his first top ten and highest charting single in Germany to date.

Music video

The music video for "Love Lockdown" was directed by Simon Henwood and premiered on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Tuesday, October 7, 2008. ^[11] On BET J, the video appeared at #32 on the Last Call 2008! Top 50 Countdown . It was filmed in West's apartment and features him in an all white room, also dressed in white singing the verses of the song. West claims he drew inspiration from Christian Bale's portrayal of Patrick Bateman in Mary Harron's 2000 film adaptation of the novel American Psycho , a homage that is echoed in the presentation of the video's interiors, which mirror Bateman's New York City apartment in the film. ^[12] During the song's choruses, African tribe members appear, beating on djembe drums to the rhythm of song. More and more tribal members are shown with each chorus, and near the end, two very tall female figures covered with body paint decorated with abstract tattoo patterns reminiscent of the Nazca Lines appear. Interspersed throughout the video are visuals of what appears to be a spacecraft. The video ends with West laying in fetal position on the couch in the white room, in a homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Track listing

UK CD Single #"Love Lockdown" - 4:30 EU 4-Track CD single # "Love Lockdown" - 4:30 # "Flashing Lights" (Album Version) - 3:57 # "Stronger" (A-Trak Remix) - 4:38 # "Love Lockdown" (video) '''UK 12" Picture Disc #"Love Lockdown" - 4:30

CD Single Remixes # "Love Lockdown" (Aerotronic Remix) - 4:12 # "Love Lockdown" (Chew Fu Small Room Fix) - 4:43 # "Love Lockdown" (Flufftronix Edit) - 5:04 # "Love Lockdown" (Instrumental) - 4:11 # "Love Lockdown" (Jake Troth Remix) - 2:46 # "Love Lockdown" (Main) - 4:31 # "Love Lockdown" (Radio Edit) - 4:15

Personnel

Information taken from 808s & Heartbreak liner notes. ^[13]

• Songwriters: Kanye West, Jeff Bahsker, Jenny-Bea Englishman, Malik Yusef, Jan Menzies
• Producers: Kanye West and Jeff Bhasker
• Keyboards: Jeff Bhasker
• Drums/Percussion: Gibi, Zé Bruno, Lula Almeida and Rodney Dassis

Charts, sales and procession

Charts positions Chart (2008) Peak position Australian Singles Chart 18 [14] Austrian Singles Chart 18 Belgian Singles Chart (Flanders) 13 Canadian Hot 100 5 [15] Danish Singles Chart 4 [16] Dutch Top 40 13 European Hot 100 Singles 16 [17] Finnish Singles Chart 20 [18] German Singles Chart 8 [19] Irish Singles Chart 4 [20] Italian Singles Chart 38 New Zealand Singles Chart 11 Norwegian Singles Chart 14 Swiss Singles Chart 18 Swedish Singles Chart 11 [21] UK Singles Chart 8 UK R&B Chart 1 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 3 [22] U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play 26 [23] U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 26 [24] U.S. Billboard Pop 100 8 [25] U.S. Billboard Rhythmic Top 40 7 [26]

Sales and certifications Country Provider Certification Sales Australia ARIA Gold [27] 35,000+ New Zealand RIANZ Gold [28] 7,500+ United States RIAA 2x Platinum [29] 2,000,000+

Chart procession and succession

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|width="40%" style="text-align: center;" rowspan="1"| |width="30%" align="center" rowspan="1"| Succeeded by
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Remixes

• Tonedeff released a remix titled "Warden", produced by Chew Fu. ^[30]
• DJ Earworm released a remix/mashup titled Reckoner Lockdown that also incorporates stems from Radiohead's Reckoner. ^[31]
• Kanye West posted a remix of Love Lockdown featuring R.Kelly on his official blog. (November 7, 2008)
• Fall Out Boy vocalist Patrick Stump recorded a version of "Love Lockdown"; unlike Kanye's version autotune was not used.
• White Lies recorded a cover of "Love Lockdown" in a Live Lounge session for Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 1 show on January 14, 2009. The band plans to release the cover as a b-side to their single "Fairwell To The Fairground."
• Tiesto posted a remix of "Love Lockdown" on 23 January 2009
• Trey Songz has a freestyle using "Love Lockdown"'s beat.
• Solange Knowles has performed a snippet of the song at recent live performances.
• Mark Holiday posted his remix on December 2008 on his official myspace under his stage name "Trendsetter". ^[32]
• LMFAO released a remix
• Royce Da 5'9' has a remix called "Shot Down".
• Apathy has a remix of his own called "Love Locked Ap".

Other

Also, this song was heard on the movie, "Trouble Gone Vegas."

References

1. ''Time'', December 22, 2008, pages 47-8.
2. Kanye West: Blog
3. Kanye West Lets Fans Remix "Love Lockdown" For Free
4. LOVE LOCK DOWN STEMS!!!
5. http://www.e4.com/skins/music/series3-episode4.html Music Guide, Series 3, episode 4; E4.com
6. MTV News RAW: Kanye West
7. Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak Album Preview: More Drums, More Singing, 'No Typical Hip-Hop Beats'
8. Video: Kanye West Visits Conan O’Brien
9. Chart Beat
10. [1]
11. Kanye West's World Premiere Video!
12. Kanye West Inspired By Christian Bale's 'American Psycho'
13. 808s & Heartbreak
14. Top 50 Singles Chart - Australian Recording Industry Association
15. Canadian Hot 100 – Love Lockdown
16. Denmark – Love Lockdown
17. European Hot 100 Singles – Love Lockdown
18. Finland – Love Lockdown
19. Süddeutsche Zeitung: Farin Urlaub stürmt auf Platz zwei der Charts, retrieved 2008-11-11.
20. Kanye West – Love Lockdown
21. Sweden – Love Lockdown
22. The Billboard Hot 100 – Love Lockdown
23. Hot Dance Club Play – Love Lockdown
24. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs – Love Lockdown
25. Pop 100 – Love Lockdown
26. Rhythmic Top 40 – Love Lockdown
27. Top 40 Urban Albums & Singles Chart
28. Chart #1651: Love Lockdown Gold certification
29. &artist=kanye&format=SINGLE&debutLP=&category=&sex=&releaseDate=&requestNo=&type=&level=&label=&company=&certificationDate=&awardDescription=&catalogNo=&aSex=&rec_id=&charField=&gold=&platinum=&multiPlat=&level2=&certDate=&album=&id=&after=&before=&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2009&sort=Artist&perPage=25
30. (October 13, 2008). Tondeff Explains Kanye West Edit, 2009 For QN5
31. (October 7, 2008). DJ Earworm posted to own site.
32. (December 7, 2008) Trendsetter aka Mark Holiday official myspace