Gold Digger (Kanye West song)

For the comic book, see Gold Digger (comic).

"Gold Digger"
Single by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx
From the album Late Registration
Released	2005
Format	Digital download 12" maxi single
Genre	Hip-hop, Soul
Length	3:28
Label	Roc-A-Fella/Island Def Jam
Writers	Kanye West Ray Charles Renald Richard
Producers	Kanye West Jon Brion
Video director	Hype Williams
Certification	Platinum
Chart positions	#1 (USA) #1 (Australia) #2 (UK)
Kanye West singles chronology
"Diamonds from Sierra Leone" (2005)	"Gold Digger" (2005)	"Heard 'Em Say" (2005)
Jamie Foxx singles chronology
"Slow Jamz" (2003)	"Gold Digger" (2005)	"DJ Play a Love Song" (2006)

"Gold Digger" is a 2005 number one single recorded by Kanye West. It features Jamie Foxx and was released by Roc-a-Fella Records. As the second single from West's second album, Late Registration, "Gold Digger" peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, becoming West's and Foxx's second number one single after 2003's "Slow Jamz" with Twista. Based upon elements of the Ray Charles song "I Got a Woman", "Gold Digger" contains singing by Jamie Foxx, imitating Charles' vocal style. Ray Charles' singing is also featured in the song as a repeated sample.

The single broke a record for the most digital downloads in a week, selling over 80,000 digital downloads, and it is also the fastest selling digital download of all time. It was 2005's second-longest running number one on The Billboard Hot 100 at ten weeks, behind Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together". "Gold Digger" was nominated for "Record of the Year" at the Grammy Awards of 2006 (losing to Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams") and won the award for Best Rap Solo Performance.

History

Song content

"Gold Digger" was written by Kanye West and co-produced by West and Jon Brion. The song is built around both a vocal interpolation and a sample of "I Got a Woman", originally performed by Ray Charles and written by Ray Charles and Renald Charles. Though he is given full credit as a featured artist on "Gold Digger," Jamie Foxx's only vocal contribution is the a cappella introduction to the song, an interpolation of Charles's "I Got a Woman" (Foxx opens the song with the line "She take my money/when I'm in need/Yeah she's a trifling/friend indeed," a twist on Charles' original lyrics, "She gives me money/when I'm in need/Yeah she's a kind/of friend to me." A sample of Charles singing the original is repeated throughout the song). The song is the second collaboration between Foxx and West, following "Slow Jamz" with Twista. The two also worked on Foxx's latest album, and West features on Foxx's song "Extravaganza". Interestingly the song was originally created not with the intention of Kanye performing it himself but with the intention of female rapper Shawnna performing it on her debut album "Worth tha Weight", however upon her turning it down Kanye simply rewrote the lyrics to give the male perspective. According to Kanye the intended chorus to be sung by Shawnna was as follows: "I'm not sayin' I'm a gold digger, but I ain't messin' with no broke niggas..."[1].

In the song, West and Foxx deliver a tongue-in-cheek criticism of a woman who falsely seduces a man under the true pretense of spending his money, playing into the stereotype of African-American young women as being gold diggers. "Now I ain't saying she a gold digger," West tells his audience, "but she ain't messin with no broke niggas." The woman spends money her man gives her to buy her kid's toys on liposuction and plastic surgery (West comments that the woman was "supposed to buy your shorty (child) Tyco wit' your money", but instead "went to the doctor and got "lipo" wit' your money"). She even lies to her man about the paternity of her child, resulting in the man supporting the child for 18 years until he discovers he is not the father.

West urges his female listeners to stick with their man, even if he is a dishwasher or cook at a fast-food restaurant, instead of going after the men with the money. In an ironic final twist which punctuates the sarcasm inherent in the song, West points out that when that hopeful and ambitious broke man finally "gets on", however, he is very likely to "leave your ass for a white girl."

Music Video

The song's music video was directed by Hype Williams, who also directed West's previous video, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone". Shot in an widescreen letterbox format, using stylized art direction with few props, the video features performances shots of West intercut with footage of Williams' trademark female video models depicted as "pin-up" cover models from fictional vintage magazines. The titles of the magazines the women appear on the cover of reflect the correlating verses in the song. Foxx is also present, lip-synching both his own parts and the Ray Charles vocal sample.

The video originally featured a woman holding a dagger, which MTV will not allow. It took a while to persuade West to edit the knife out. In his argument, he pointed out that Shakira had a knife in her video for "La Tortura" (even though then it is used in a kitchen, not in a violent image). In the end, West agreed to obscure the knife with sparks of light.

At the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, "Gold Digger" received nominations for both Best Male Video and Best Rap Video. The awards have yet to be handed out.

Chart performance

Following the chart performance of "Diamonds from Sierra Leone", which failed to crack the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, West's label became concerned with how a follow up single would perform. Their concerns were unfounded as "Gold Digger" became a success, hitting number one on the Hot 100, Pop 100, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and the Hot Rap Tracks charts.

When Late Registration was released, the album version of "Gold Digger" was first made available for download. Approximately 80,000 digital downloads of "Gold Digger" were sold through on legal music services such as iTunes and Napster in that first week, making it the most successful digital sales debut ever. The song broke the record for the most digital downloads sold in one week, and the record for the fastest selling digital single of all time, both previously held by Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl". "Gold Digger" has sold over 1,000,000 downloads during its seven weeks of release. This makes "Gold Digger" one of the few songs in history to sell over 1,000,000 downloads in the United States.

The high digital download sales helped propel the song from number nineteen to number one in one week, the fifth highest jump ever to that position on the Hot 100. The jump ended the fourteen-week (and ten consecutive week) run of Carey's "We Belong Together" at number one, and kept Carey's "Shake It Off" from replacing "We Belong Together" as the number one single. The song spent ten weeks at the top of the Hot 100 until rising R&B star Chris Brown's hit "Run It!" shot up to the pole position for the week of November 19.

"Gold Digger" also became West's first Top 10 single on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, peaking at number-two. On the Pop 100, "Gold Digger" also broke a record by jumping from number ninety-four to number two, giving West the record for the biggest ever jump on that chart.

By reaching number-one, "Gold Digger" gave Charles his first Hot 100 chart-topper as a songwriter, credited as a result of the "I Got a Woman" sample. As an artist, Charles topped the Hot 100 three times in the 1960s, but always with other writers' songs.

Chart positions

Year	Chart	Position
2005	Billboard Hot 100	1
2005	Billboard Pop 100	1
2005	Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks	1
2005	Hot Digital Songs	1
2005	Hot Digital Tracks (Explicit Album Version)	1
2005	Hot Digital Tracks (Edited Album Version)	13
2005	Hot Rap Tracks	1
2005	Top 40 Mainstream	2
2005	New Zealand Singles Charts	1
2005	Australian ARIA Charts	1
2005	Rhythmic Top 40	3

U.S. Chart Run

Billboard Hot 100
Week	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Position	92	75	62	47	30	27	19	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2
Week	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39
Position	3	6	7	8	4	7	12	17	22	22	18	21	23	29	34	39	43	44	50

Hurricane Katrina remix

A politically charged mash-up of the song circulated following Hurrican Katrina that incorporated audio of Kanye West's own assertion that "George Bush doesn't care about black people" on a televised benefit concert.[2] The song criticized George W. Bush for his slow reaction to the plight of New Orleans. Titled simply "George Bush Don't Like Black People" and written by Houston hip-hop duo The Legendary K.O., the single became widespread on the Internet for several weeks after the catastrophe, in some cases backing video mash-ups with photo montages from the hurricane.

The refrain of the song asserts that "George Bush ain't a gold digger, but he ain't messin with no broke niggas", and implores, "come down, Bush, come on, come down" to New Orleans. Similar themes, including the characterization of black victims of the hurricane as looters, were covered by Public Enemy in a contemporaneous single, "Hell No We Ain't All Right!"