"
Live Your Life" is a song by American
rapper T.I. off his sixth album
Paper Trail and released as the
third single.
The song features Barbadian
Pop singer Rihanna, and was produced by Just Blaze and Canei Finch. It was
released as the third single from the album. It officially
premiered at the
2008 MTV
Video Music Awards during T.I.'s performance. This is T.I's
third
Billboard Hot 100
number one single in the United States (after "
My Love" with Justin
Timberlake and his previous single "
Whatever You Like") and Rihanna's fifth on
the same chart (after "
SOS",
"
Umbrella", "
Take a Bow" and "
Disturbia"). The song
samples O-Zone's
"
Dragostea din tei".
In the
United
Kingdom
it was released in a digital download on November 8
and physically released on November 24. It reached number
two on downloads alone, becoming T.I.'s third top-five hit in the
UK (
Destiny's Child's "
Soldier" with
Lil Wayne which peaked at number four and
"
My Love" with
Justin Timberlake reaching number
two as well) and Rihanna's ninth top five hit in the UK.
The single has been certified
3X Platinum by the
RIAA, and
Platinum by the
RIANZ
It was ranked the number six
hip hop
song of 2008 by
MTV. This song can be heard in
the film
The Hangover
as well as the trailer. It was also played during
ESPN coverage of the
2009 NFL
Draft. The song also won T.I. and Rihanna the Viewer's Choice
Award at the
2009 BET Awards, becoming
T.I.'s third and Rihanna's first BET Award win. At the
2009 MTV Video Music Awards the
song won the award for Best Male Video. It was nominated for 'Track
Of the Year', 'Best Hip Hop Collaboration' and 'Best Hip Hop Video'
at the
2009 BET Hip Hop Awards,
and won in the 'Best Hip Hop Collaboration' & 'Best Hip Hop
Video' categories. The song is nominated for 'Favorite Music
Collaboration' at the
2010
People's Choice Awards.
Release
The first version of the song leaked onto the Internet on August
26, earlier than the award performance, although that version was
not the mastered version. The official mastered album version,
which has Rihanna's own verse, and T.I.'s dedication to soldiers on
the Iraqi battlefield (on the first part, he told "Ay... This a
special what's haapnin' to all my, all my soldiers over there in
Iraq. Errbody right here, what you need to do is be thankful for
the life you got you know what I'm sayin'? Stop lookin' at what you
ain't got, start and be thankful for what you do got. Let's give it
to 'em baby girl") has already been released as a promotional
digital download for radio stations. The radio edit clocks out at
4:01, the album version is the same as above except Rihanna's verse
is longer, T.I.'s intro is longer, the chorus is extended and the
sample is used at the end, the album version clocks out at
5:39.
The song contains a rendition of the
O-Zone
song "
Dragostea Din Tei", a number
one single throughout
Europe that was further
made famous by the
Numa Numa Internet
meme.
Chart performance
"Live Your Life" debuted at number 80 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart solely on
airplay for the chart week of October 10, 2008. The following week,
the song made history and broke several records when it skyrocketed
from number 80 to number one on the Hot 100, setting the record for
the highest jump to number one, a record previously set by T.I.
himself only six weeks prior when his song "
Whatever You Like" jumped from number 71
to number one on the chart. However, this record was broken the
following week by
Britney Spears and
her song
Womanizer jumping from
number 96 to number one on the Hot 100. "Live Your Life" also
replaced "Whatever You Like" at number 1 on the Hot 100, making
T.I. the ninth artist to ever replace themselves at number one on
the chart, and the first time since
Usher did it in 2004. "Whatever You
Like" also occupied the number 2 position on the Hot 100 that week,
making it the first time an artist has held the number 1 and number
two positions simultaneously since
Akon in
2006. In addition, the song broke the record for second highest
first week digital sales ever, behind of
Flo
Rida's "
Low", shifting
334,000 digital downloads to debut at number one on the
Hot Digital Songs chart. It is T.I.'s
second Hot 100 number one as a lead artist, and his third overall.
On the issue dated November 15, "Live your Life" again jumped to
the number one spot this time again overthrowing T.I.'s massive hit
"Whatever You Like" from the top spot again. He is the only artist
to replace himself twice on the Hot 100 with the same song. For the
issue dated December 6, "Live your Life" topped the
Pop 100 chart in the U.S., replacing
Katy Perry's "
Hot N
Cold" from the top spot, making it T.I.'s first ever number one
hit on that chart. On the issue dated December 14, Live Your Life
regained the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a third
time making it only the fourth song to achieve this feat (three of
which came in 2008) as well as making T.I. the only artist to
achieve this twice. The single held the number 1 spot for six
non-consecutive weeks. The single was certified 3x Platinum on
March 12, 2009, selling over 6 million copies.
The song originally debuted at number seven on
Bubbling Under
R&B/Hip-Hop Singles before entering
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs as the
week's "Hot Shot" at number 77 and rising the following week up to
number 38, an impressive 39-place jump, so far peaking at number
two for 10 consecutive weeks (being held off by
Beyoncé's "
Single Ladies "). The song
has also been number 1 on the
Hot Rap
Tracks for 8 consecutive weeks making it the second longest
number 1 charted song on that chart (right behind "Whatever You
Like" which was number 1 for 10 consecutive weeks). It has also
made a "Hot Shot Debut" at number 20 on the
Canadian Hot 100 chart on the issue of
October 11, and jumped to number five the following week, making it
his biggest hit there, it peaked at number 4 in early January. The
song debuted at number 3 on the
Irish Singles Chart, giving T.I. his
highest charting single there, and Rihanna her tenth top ten there.
However, in the week ending November 6, "Live Your Life"
disappeared on the Irish Top 50, but re-entered at number
nine.
In
New
Zealand
, "Live Your Life" debuted at number twenty three on
October 6, 2008 and peaked at number two. The song was
certified Platinum after nineteen weeks selling over 15 thousand
copies.
On the
Australian ARIA Singles Chart,
the song debuted in its first week at number 48, jumped up to 25,
and has so far peaked at number 3. It debuted on the Australian
ARIA Physical Singles Chart at number 10 on the 17th of November,
and has so far peaked at number seven on that chart. Also, it has
peaked so far at number 4 on the ARIA Digital Tracks Chart.
In the
UK, the song entered at number 16
on the UK
iTunes chart and within hours
of being available, it had reached number 1. The Single
debuted at number 39 on the official
UK
Singles Chart and surged up to number 2 the next week.
Music video
T.I. and Rihanna in a split screen
showing four instances from the music video of "Live Your
Life"
The video stars T.I and Rihanna. The music video uses the radio
edit of the extended song. The video plays backwards, starting with
the end of T.I.'s day. It is 6:33PM. In the opening scene T.I is
walking. The song then starts and goes from a series of underground
shots and Rihanna in her dressing room. T.I. goes back to walking
and is shown with blood all over his face and other various cuts.
T.I. is then shown driving in a car at 6:01PM. The video then cuts
to T.I's day at 6:27PM. He gets thrown out of the car and is kicked
by a large man. The video then cuts again to 5:21PM in the day. T.I
is shown wearing the same suit he did earlier in the video, except
that it is not torn and dirty. He then encounters a group of thugs.
T.I preemptively lands a punch on one of the men. He is then beaten
up by the rest men there. Here the video begins a different story
arc, showing T.I before he made his fortune. The video takes its
turn going from T.I. singing in a recording studio to him and in
front of a house playing dice and dominoes with some of his
friends. This portion of the video is interspersed with clips of
the other story arc, such as showing T.I with a briefcase full of
money. After this, the video is mostly back to main story arc. T.I
is shown in the bathroom of a bar at 4:35PM. At 4:37PM he walks out
into the bar. The video shows T.I. talking to a man saying "[he]
want[s] out."; the man replies by explaining that there is no
getting out, not for him nor for the character that Rihanna plays.
At 4:41PM T.I slams the money briefcase down on the table and shows
it to the man saying that "I'm done. I got myself here, I'll get
myself out". Then he is seen walking into that same bar, in a
flashback, with a CD in his hand. The man that T.I spoke to earlier
calls him over. This is a flashback showing T.I trying to get a
record deal. The last shot of the video takes place at around the
same time as the first shot of the video. T.I. is walking down the
L.A. sewers, raising his hands triumphantly in the air with a
bloodied and scarred face. Meaning that he was successful in buying
his way out of the original record deal, both with the money he
made and by getting jumped out.
During this scene you can hear T.I.'s song "
U Don't Know Me" playing in the
background.
The song's producer,
Just Blaze, is
briefly seen playing pool in the bar during the second verse and
final chorus.
The
Official Charts Company of
the UK censored the video and only play a 30 second clip
of the end of the video with no blood.
Formats and track listing
Promo CD single
- "Live Your Life" (clean) (featuring Rihanna) - 4:05
- "Live Your Life" (instrumental) - 5:45
- "Live Your Life" (explicit radio edit) (featuring
Rihanna) - 4:02
- "Live Your Life" (explicit album version) (featuring
Rihanna) - 5:38
UK CD single
- "Live Your Life" (explicit album version) (featuring
Rihanna) - 5:38
Australian CD single
- "Live Your Life" (radio edit) (featuring
Rihanna)
- "Collect Call"
- "No Matter What"
Remixes
- "Royce Da 5'9 - Live Your Life (I'm
Nice) Pt. 2"
- "Yung Joc - Live Your Life
(Remix)"
- "Chamillionaire - Texas 4 Life
(Remix)"
- "Trae - Live Yo Life (Remix)"
- T.I ft Rihanna - Soca
Child Remix
- A Plea for Purging feat.
Specialist Head - Live Your Life (B-side from Depravity)
Charts
Certifications
| Country |
Provider |
Certification |
Sales/shipments |
| Australia |
ARIA |
Platinum |
70,000+ |
| New Zealand |
RIANZ |
Platinum |
15,000+ |
| United States |
RIAA |
3x Platinum |
3,000,000+ |
| United Kingdom |
BPI |
Silver |
325,000 |
Chart procession and succession
References
- www.nztop40.com, Chart #1658 - Monday 2 March 2009:
Top 40 Singles Chart
-
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1601236/20081212/lil_wayne.jhtml
- T.I. breaks his own record atop Billboard Hot 100.
Chartbeat on Billboard.com
- T.I. replaces himself atop the Billboard Hot
100
- T.I. Breaks Own Record With Hot 100
-
http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH_RESULTS
- IRMA Top 50 Singles
- http://www.rianz.org.nz/rianz/chart_facts.asp
- Turkey Top 20 Chart Retrieved on
2008-10-26
-
http://ariacharts.com.au/pages/charts_display_urban.asp?chart=1Q40RB&chart2=1R40RB
)
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