In the US, ‘Run this town’ peaked at number 2 but topped the US Hot Rap songs and the US Rhythmic charts. In the UK, the song topped the Official Charts Company and was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Shawn Carter – Robyn Fenty – Kanye West – Ernest Wilson – Jeff Bhasker I think people are really gonna flip on this.” And things happen off screen that you don’t see. Even in the way I shot, where the camera comes by Jay, it doesn’t stop on him, it goes to Rihanna, there’s kind of this chaos of revealing and covering and concealing. We wanted you to feel uneasy throughout the piece, We wanted there to be a constant layer of tension through the piece. So we looked at a lot of those references, new photos and historical photos, to capture that kind of falling-apart feeling.” “We wanted you to feel uneasy throughout the piece. We live in very orderly society in America, but when you get into Brazil, you get into the Middle East, you get into Africa, you get into Eastern Europe, when you get into places like that, there’s a different sort of ‘we run this town’ going on. I showed Jay some references from the classic rebellious zones of the world. The song samples the 1970 The 4 Level of Existence band ‘Someday in Athens’ In an interview with the director of the music video, Anthony Mandler, he explained: “There’s a tone and feeling to the song, there’s a militia, a march and a kind of rambunctious energy to it that, for me, I immediately wanted to tap into. it’s pretty much it.” explained Jay Z in an interview with Tim Westwood.

We run this town jay z video