"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" is a song recorded by American rapper Jay-Z, released on October 10, 2002, as the lead single from his seventh studio album The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse (2002). Composed by Jay-Z, Kanye West, Darryl Harper, Ricky Rouse and Tyrone Wrice, and featuring Jay-Z's then-girlfriend, now wife, American singer Beyoncé Knowles, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" sampled its beat from Tupac Shakur's 1996 song "Me and My Girlfriend", paraphrasing its chorus, as well as Prince's 1987 song "If I Was Your Girlfriend". Inspired by the 1967 crime film Bonnie and Clyde, the song features programm
"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" is a song recorded by American rapper Jay-Z, released on October 10, 2002, as the lead single from his seventh studio album The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse (2002). Composed by Jay-Z, Kanye West, Darryl Harper, Ricky Rouse and Tyrone Wrice, and featuring Jay-Z's then-girlfriend, now wife, American singer Beyoncé Knowles, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" sampled its beat from Tupac Shakur's 1996 song "Me and My Girlfriend", paraphrasing its chorus, as well as Prince's 1987 song "If I Was Your Girlfriend". Inspired by the 1967 crime film Bonnie and Clyde, the song features programm
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"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" is a song recorded by American rapper Jay-Z, released on October 10, 2002, as the lead single from his seventh studio album The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse (2002). Composed by Jay-Z, Kanye West, Darryl Harper, Ricky Rouse and Tyrone Wrice, and featuring Jay-Z's then-girlfriend, now wife, American singer Beyoncé Knowles, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" sampled its beat from Tupac Shakur's 1996 song "Me and My Girlfriend" (released under Shakur's pseudonym Makaveli), paraphrasing its chorus, as well as Prince's 1987 song "If I Was Your Girlfriend". Inspired by the 1967 crime film Bonnie and Clyde, the song features programmed drums, bass instruments, and a flamenco guitar as instrumentation.
"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was generally received with favorable reviews by music critics, who complimented the combination of Jay-Z's and Knowles' musical styles and the song's production. The single reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Jay-Z's second top ten single and Knowles' first as a solo artist. It charted at number one in Switzerland, number two in the United Kingdom and peaked in the top twenty in other European territories. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).
The accompanying music video, directed by Chris Robinson, features Jay-Z and Knowles playing a modern-day version of the 1930s bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, and was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" spawned a feud with American recording artist Toni Braxton, who had also sampled "Me and My Girlfriend" in her 2002 song "Me & My Boyfriend" and accused West and Jay-Z of stealing the idea of using the song as a sample (which both men later denied), even though Mariah Carey had earlier sampled the same song by Shakur on the track "How Much" from her 1999 album Rainbow. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was performed by Jay-Z and Knowles on several television shows and was later included on the set list of their concert performances and tours, most notably on their co-headlining On the Run and On the Run II tours.
Production and release
"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" marked the first collaboration between rapper Jay-Z and R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles. While listening to American rapper Tupac Shakur's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, producer Kanye West suggested that Shakur's song "Me and My Girlfriend" would make a good sample to use on Jay-Z's duet with Knowles. West told MTV News that Jay-Z had asked him on the telephone for a duet for him and Knowles: "We got this joint, it has to be the best beat you ever made." He continued:
Composition
"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" features drums and live instrumentation such as bass instruments and guitar chords. It also consists of a beat sampled from "Me and My Girlfriend". The song was inspired by the 1967 American crime film Bonnie and Clyde as Jay-Z and Knowles proclaim themselves as the current version of the criminal duo Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) and Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty). Ethan Brown of New York magazine noted that its patina of flamenco guitar was reminiscent of that in Jay-Z's 2001 collaboration with R. Kelly on "Fiesta." Knowles mimics the hook of "Me and My Girlfriend" on the chorus as she sings, "Down to ride to the very end, me and my boyfriend".
Some lyrics sung by Knowles during the bridge were sampled from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" by American recording artist Prince. On the first verse, Jay-Z references the relationship between Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, and the American television comedy drama series Sex and the City: "I'm mashin' the gas, she's grabbin' the wheel, it's trippy / How hard she rides wit' me, the new Bobby and Whitney / Only time we don't speak is during Sex and the City / She gets Carrie fever, but soon as the show's over / She's right back to being my soldier / 'Cause mami's a rider and I'm a roller / Put us together, how they gon' stop both of us? / Whatever she lacks I'm right over her shoulder (Woo) / When I'm off track, mami is keeping me focused / So let's lock this down like it's supposed to be / The new '03 Bonnie and Clyde, Hov' and B, holla".
Critical reception
"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was received favorably by critics, who commended the use of different samples, and commented on the relationship between Jay-Z and Knowles. Chris Ryan of Spin magazine described "
So I went home and called my dog, E Base, who plays a lot of instruments up at Baseline [studio] for me and [producer] Just Blaze. [E] came through. I programmed the drums in 10 minutes, and then he played all the different parts. This version is all live bass, live guitars, [live] chords on it. I brought it to Hov that night, he heard it, he thought of the video treatment before he thought of the rap. He just knew it was gonna be the one.
Tensions arose during the conception of "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" over the sampling of "Me and My Girlfriend". Senior Vice President of A&R Tina Davis commented on the issue, "We only had one day to clear the [Tupac Shakur] sample [from 'Me and my Girlfriend'] that was used on "'03 Bonnie and Clyde" last year with Jay-Z and Knowles [Beyoncé]. We were back and forth with Afeni Shakur all day until we got the clearance. And then it's a hit."
"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was released on October 10, 2002, as the lead single from Jay-Z's album The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse. Knowles later included the song as a bonus track on international editions of her 2003 debut solo album Dangerously in Love. In 2003, Now That's What I Call Music! included "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" as the opening track of the 12th volume of the US release and the fifteenth track of the 54th volume of the UK release. The song's release was the first indication of Jay-Z's and Knowles' romantic status, spawning rumors about a burgeoning relationship. Their relationship was not publicized until Jay-Z featured on Knowles' songs "Crazy In Love" (2003) and "Déjà Vu" (2006).
