Started From The Bottom

Album

Nothing Was the Same

Label

Young Money Entertainment

Genre

Trap

Media Type

DD

Duration

2:53

Composer(s)

Aubrey Graham;Noah Shebib;Michael Coleman

Entered Chart

Feb 23, 2013

Peak Date

Mar 9, 2013

Released

February 1, 2013[

Recorded

2012

Catalog #

Young Money/Cash Money Digital

The first official single from Drake's third album was leaked on his October's Very Own blog on February 1, 2013. He said at the time: "I feel sometimes that people don't have enough information about my beginnings and therefore they make up a life story for me that isn't consistent with actual events. My family and my second family (consisting of the best friends anybody could ever have) all struggled and worked extremely hard to make all this happen. I did not buy my way into this spot and it was the furthest thing from easy to achieve. I am proud of every part of my past and I'm excited for this song to find a place in your life as well." Drake added, "I didn't feel I needed any interviews or radio or press to launch this song. It felt right to come back to the site that I started on and release it to the people that started here with me." Drake reveals on the song a frustration that because he didn't come out of the ghetto like some other rappers, he is portrayed as never having struggled. "Boys tell stories 'bout the man," he spits. "Say I never struggled, wasn't hungry, yeah I doubt it n---a." Producer Mike Zombie created the sinister-sounding soundscape, over which Drake raps in a more menacing tone than usual presumably to highlight his early struggles. Directed by Little X, the song's music video finds Drake starting at the bottom in a pharmacy before being promoted to night manager. By the end of the clip he is flying the skies in a private jet. It was the clip for Psy's "Gangnam Style" that inspired the epic nature of the visual. "It's been a long time since people had seen a big video," Little X explained to MTV News. "His conversation with me, even when we did 'HYFR,' was that music videos didn't have the impact that they used to have. Drake came up watching the videos that I made, and all of us made back in those days [when] Busta Rhymes was being chased by elephants, Diddy was jumping out of helicopters, driving Hummers in the desert and dancing with Jennifer Lopez. "Videos were massive events back then and that didn't exist anymore," he continued. "'Gangnam Style' kinda brought a bit of that back, so I guess that hyped him up... doing something large and exciting and something that people would wanna see and talk about." The video is a celebration of Drake and his team's journey from the bottom to life on top. "We just wanted everyone to feel the fun of it all," said Little X. "For me it was always a celebration. Just what he said, 'started from the bottom' and now we're here - so I was in the world of we're here. Especially after we get past that moment in Shoppers [Drug Mart], we start hitting you with that life that they're living right now." Drake told the July 2013 edition of GQ magazine regarding this cut: "I think a lot of people wish their favorite rapper wrote it, as if a song like that should be gangster, but I was the one who wrote it, and everyone has their bottom." This won Best Video at the 2013 BET Awards. Drake also won the viewers' choice award after being nominated for 12 prizes. The ceremony celebrates black actors, athletes and musicians as part of the US cable TV network, Black Entertainment Television. Drake performed the song for the first time on television live during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards on August 25, 2013. Drake references his motto of "no new friends" in the bridge. The phrase also was used as the title of a DJ Khaled single, which Drizzy prominently featured: "No new ni--as, ni--a we don't feel that F--k a fake friend, where you real friends at?" "I'll be out trying to get a sandwich or something and the guy will say to me, 'I'd give you a free drink with that, but you know, no new friends,'" Drake told Billboard magazine with a laugh. "I swear I'm not sitting around going, 'What's the new meme going to be?' But I do spend a lot of time when I'm writing, especially lately, trying to make something for people to live by. I'm trying to make anthems that are empowering to people, to find phrases that I haven't heard before. I'm not just going to sit here and be like, 'Fu--in' bitches, getting money!'" Nothing was the Same's artwork was created by the Southern California artist Kadir Nelson, who also designed Michael Jackson's posthumous album, Michael. The two-part piece features a profile of Drizzy as a child with an afro comb in his hair, looking directly at an adult version of the Toronto rapper/singer adorned with a gold chain. Drake explained to MTV News that the artwork represents that his "most clean, concise thoughts from now, and my best recollection of [the past]." "I wanted to give people something that they'd be like, 'I'll never forget this right here," he added. "It's vibrant and there's something about it that captures you, and I think that's kinda how this album sounds." Drake was inspired to write "Started From The Bottom" after hearing Jay Z and Kanye West's Watch The Throne track "Niggas in Paris" for the first time. He recalled to Rolling Stone: "I was like, 'How did I not think of that?' – 'Ball so hard, that s--t cray!' It was real rap s--t, but it felt melodic; all the cadences felt so good." The Toronto MC added that it challenged him to come up with a rapped hook just as catchy as a sung one and he came up with this song. More songs from Drake

Started
(Zombie on the track)

Started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now my whole team fuckin' here
Started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now the whole team here, nigga
Started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now my whole team here, nigga
Started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now the whole team fuckin' here

I done kept it real from the jump
Livin' at my mama house we'd argue every month
Nigga, I was tryna get it on my own
Workin' all night, traffic on the way home
And my uncle callin' me like, "Where ya at?
I gave you the keys told you bring it right back"
Nigga, I just think it's funny how it goes
Now I'm on the road, half a million for a show

And we started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now my whole team fuckin' here
Started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now the whole team here, nigga
Started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now the whole team fuckin' here
Started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now the whole team here, nigga

Boys tell stories 'bout the man
Say I never struggled, wasn't hungry, yeah, I doubt it, nigga
I could turn your boy into the man
There ain't really much I hear that's poppin' off without us, nigga
We just want the credit where it's due
I'ma worry 'bout me, give a fuck about you
Nigga, just as a reminder to myself
I wear every single chain, even when I'm in the house

'Cause we started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now my whole team fuckin' here
Started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now the whole team here, nigga

No new niggas, nigga, we don't feel that
Fuck a fake friend, where your real friends at?
We don't like to do too much explainin'
Story stay the same, I never changed it
No new niggas, nigga, we don't feel that
Fuck a fake friend, where your real friends at?
We don't like to do too much explainin'
Story stay the same through the money and the fame

'Cause we started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now my whole team fuckin' here
Started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now the whole team here, nigga
Started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now my whole team here, nigga
Started from the bottom, now we're here
Started from the bottom, now the whole team here, nigga