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Best I Ever Had (Drake song)

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"Best I Ever Had"
Song

"Best I Ever Had" is the first single from Canadian rapper Drake's third mixtape, So Far Gone. It will also appear on his debut album, Thank Me Later.

The song has a remix, which features Busta Rhymes, Young Money artist Nicki Minaj, Tank and Teairra Mari. Other remixes feature De La Ghetto, Swizz Beatz, R. Kelly, Chamillionaire, Trey Songz and Mase. In addition, Tru Inferno reported that an Ultra Mix to this song will be released soon. The song samples "Fallin' in Love" by Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds.

Music video

Drake told MTV News before his show at Manhattan's S.O.B.'s that he was in the process of putting together a music video for the song. He explained: “I been working with a couple people on some ideas,” he explained. “I don’t wanna say who yet, because everything isn’t confirmed yet. It should be pretty solid in the next few days. The biggest thing about that song is that a lot of women come up to me and say, ‘That’s my song, because it really makes me feel special.’ So I told the directors that were interested that I just want the visuals to coincide with that feeling. I want women to feel special when they watch the visual and say, ‘I wish that was me,’ or ‘I know that feeling.’ That’s the goal with the video — to be genuine and not sappy. Be sexy and keep it together, but still make women smile.” [1]

The video was shot in Brooklyn, New York at Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School. Kanye West was the director of the video. Trey Songz, Fabolous, Consequence, and the song's producer Boi-1da made cameos in the video, as well as artists signed to Young Money Entertainment, such as Lil Twist, Shanell, and Lil Chuckee.[2]

A clip of the video was shown June 30, 2009 on It's On with Alexa Chung, and the full version of the video premiered on the internet on July 1, 2009.[3] The full version of the video made its television debut on AMTV on July 2, 2009.

Artwork

The artwork originally showed the single as a file on a computer with a plain white background,[4] designed by artwork designer Darkie, this was deemed as too obscure by iTunes. A new cover was then created again by Darkie that looks similar to Drake's mixtape So Far Gone that he also designed the artwork for.[5] The artwork is, indeed, the back cover of So Far Gone, which included the tracklist, but, in the single, all tracks, except for "Best I Ever Had", which has white color, have grey color, and in the mixtape they have white. On July 3, 2009, iTunes replaced the cover's artwork to title name in the middle in white, and the words "Best I Ever Had" scattered around the artwork. At the top of the artwork, Drake's name is in red. Also the new artwork contains a PA label when the original one doesn't.

Chart performance

The song debuted at #92 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and has peaked at #2 for 3 weeks behind the Black Eyed Peas' hit "I Gotta Feeling" before falling to #3, making Drake the third Canadian rapper to have a song chart on the Hot 100 (the first being Kardinal Offishall with "Dangerous" at #5, followed by K'naan with "Wavin' Flag" at #99). The single has since risen to number 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs due to high airplay and downloads.[6] The single also debuted on Hot Rap Tracks on May 9 at number 24 and has risen to number 1. Drake is the first Canadian rapper to achieve a number one song on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Tracks charts, simultaneously. He is also the second Canadian artist to reach the summit of the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs after Deborah Cox's "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here". Within the first two weeks of its availability for sale on iTunes, "Best I Ever Had" has garnered over 300,000 units sold. According to the June 29 edition of The New York Times, these sales have earned Drake the #4 best selling single, behind only songs from the Black Eyed Peas and Sean Kingston.[7] The single also peaked at #49 on the Pop 100 chart before it was discontinued.

On May 28, 2009, an unauthorized album The Girls Love Drake, released by a label named Canadian Money Entertainment was released to iTunes, which featured the song as well as the Young Money Entertainment song "Every Girl". Both songs jumped on the Billboard Hot 100 due to heavy downloads of the album, at the positions of #18 and #35 respectively. After a couple of days it was removed at the request of Drake's management, with Drake filing a lawsuit against the label.[8]

"Best I Ever Had" has been downloaded 1,000,000 times since it's release, according to Nielsen Soundscan.[9]

Chart

Chart (2009) Peak
position
Canadian Hot 100[10] 24
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[11] 2
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs[12] 1
U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks 1
U.S. Billboard Pop Songs[13] 12


Chart procession and succession

Preceded by Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs number-one single
June 27, 2009 – August 8, 2009 		Succeeded by

References

  1. ^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1612424/20090529/index.jhtml
  2. ^ Best I Ever Had Songfacts
  3. ^ "Drake - Best I Ever Had Official Music Video". WeLiveThis.com. Retrieved July 1 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  4. ^ http://octobersveryown.blogspot.com/2009/06/billboard-addresses-fake-drake-album-on.html Original artwork
  5. ^ http://octobersveryown.blogspot.com/2009/06/best-i-ever-had-now-on-itunes.html New album artwork
  6. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/chart_display.jsp?cfi=367&cfgn=Singles&cfn=Hot+R%26amp%3BB%2FHip-Hop+Songs&ci=3107915&cdi=10190100&cid=05%2F09%2F2009
  7. ^ "Drake Sells 300,000 Copies of Best I Ever Had in 2 Weeks". WeLiveThis.com. Retrieved July 3 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  8. ^ Billboard.com - Exclusive: Fake Drake Album Sold On iTunes, Lawsuit Planned Against Label Its has been put back on itunes and has so far peaked at number #2
  9. ^ http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/40484/aug-9-2009-better-than-a-crystal-ball/
  10. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?f=Canadian+Hot+100&pageNumber=Top+11-50&g=Singles
  11. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Singles&f=The+Billboard+Hot+100
  12. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Singles&f=Hot+R%26B/Hip-Hop+Songs
  13. ^ http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/pop-songs?begin=11&order=position
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