We Made It

"We Made It"
Single by Busta Rhymes featuring Linkin Park
Released	April 29, 2008 April 30, 2008 June 30, 2008
Format	CD, digital download
Recorded	2007
Genre	Alternative hip hop, rap rock
Length	3:58
Label	Flipmode, Aftermath, Interscope
Writer(s)	Trevor Smith, Marcello Valenzano, Andre Lyon, Chester Bennington, Brad Delson, Mike Shinoda
Producer(s)	Cool & Dre, Mike Shinoda
Busta Rhymes singles chronology
"Don't Touch Me (Throw da Water on 'Em)" (2008) "We Made It" (2008) "Peace Sign/Index Down" (2008)
Linkin Park singles chronology "Given Up" (2008) "We Made It" (2008) "Leave Out All the Rest" (2008) Music video "We Made It" on YouTube

"We Made It" is a promo single by rapper Busta Rhymes featuring American rock band Linkin Park. The song was to be on Busta Rhymes's eighth studio album Back on My B.S., but was then cancelled off the track list because the album was released on a different label as "We Made It" was Busta Rhymes's last song on Interscope. The song was produced by Cool & Dre, with additional production by Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson. The song was released on April 29, 2008. It was Busta Rhymes's final release on Aftermath Entertainment. The track debuted and peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 charts at #65.^[1]

Song information

Dre originally sang the hook, until Busta Rhymes listened to the beat and Linkin Park kept "popping up in his head". The song was first performed on May 2, 2008 during Busta's concert at Club Index in Germany. However, he was more or less introducing the song to them, as the studio version was played and Busta occasionally sang over the song, or lip synced to it while holding his microphone down. The first performance with Linkin Park was at their rehearsal studio Third Encore on May 25, 2008, to an audience of 14 members of the Linkin Park fan club who were brought there by surprise. During the Projekt Revolution 2008 tour the song's performance featured Adam Monroe of Ashes Divide on the keyboard and Spliff Star on backing vocals and was played during Linkin Park's set. During Busta Rhymes' concerts, where Linkin Park isn't present, the studio instrumental is played and Busta usually tells the audience to move their arms up and down during Mike Shinoda's verse.

The song appears on the soundtrack of Madden NFL 09 and it is used as the theme song for its coverage of the 2008 NBA Western Conference Finals. This marked the second time a Shinoda song was used during the NBA play-offs, the first being "Remember the Name" by Fort Minor. The song was also used in the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies home World Series game before the team took the field in Games 3, 4, and 5 and as part of a video reel of highlights for the team leading up to the World Series, with a road in the background as the team took their playoff run "on the road".

Upon watching Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential election victory, Busta began cheering and singing the chorus of "We Made It".^[2]

Chamillionaire created his own version of the song called "The Real Thang" with a similar theme. The song is available on his Mixtape Messiah 4.

Music video

The music video premiered all day on BET on Tuesday, April 29, the same day as the video for its first single, "Don't Touch Me (Throw da Water on 'em)." The video also premiered for 24 hours only on Yahoo! Music on April 29. That same day, "We Made It" went to radio stations worldwide. The video also featured cameo appearances from Styles of Beyond, Bishop Lamont and Lamar Odom. Chris Robinson directed the video. * The warehouse in which the parts of the music video was filmed is the same location at which Linkin Park's Meteora album artwork and album cover were done. The video starts with the credits saying Busta Rhymes and Linkin Park and then the titles We Made It appear on the screen. Then you see Linkin Park walking through the warehouse and Busta Rhymes in a New York City flat. Then it cuts to scenes of people walking through the streets and people running a race through the rain.

This video also marks one of the first appearances of the Beats audio headphones.^[3]

Inspiration for the song

Rhymes says that the inspiration for this song was from what happened to T.I. after the BET awards:

The record was inspired by the situation that transpired with T.I. right after the BET Hip-Hop Awards. My legal situations were current, and his legal situations were current, and Akon had his, you know, history of legal situations in the past ... We wanted people to — as bad as things might look for us sometimes — just know that it ain't over until you say it's over at the end of the day. 'Cause nobody can really dictate what the outcome of your destiny, what your life is going to end up becoming, unless you let it happen that way.^[4]

Track listing

CD single
No.	Title	Length
1.	"We Made It" (Album Version)	3:58
2.	"We Made It" (A Capella) (Edit)	3:00
3.	"We Made It" (Instrumental)	3:58
4.	"We Made It" (Video)	4:31

iTunes EP
No.	Title	Length
1.	"We Made It" (Album Version)	3:58
2.	"We Made It" (A Cappella) (Edit)	2:59
3.	"We Made It" (Instrumental)	3:58

Personnel

• Busta Rhymes - rapping
• Chester Bennington - vocals
• Mike Shinoda - rapping, guitar
• Brad Delson - guitar
• Eddie "Crack Keys" Montilla - keyboards
• Cool & Dre - all other instruments

Charts

The song debuted at #14 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming his 12th and the bands 10th top 20 hit in the United Kingdom. The single peaked at number 10 and remained there after the physical release. The single also had significant success in Germany peaking at #11 on the German Single Charts.

Chart (2008)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	37
Canadian Hot 100	40
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	65
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	47
Irish Singles Chart	12
UK Singles Chart	10
New Zealand Singles Chart	13
Swedish Singles Chart	24
Danish Singles Chart	3
German Singles Chart	11
Norwegian Singles Chart	11

Year-end charts

Chart (2008)	Rank
German Singles Chart[5]	91

References

1. Chart Listing For The Week Of May 17 2008
2. Busta Rhymes Reaction To Obama Win on YouTube
3. "We Made It (Official Video) on YouTube". From VEVO's YouTube Channel
4. Busta Rhymes Comments On Star-Studded Remix, Album | Hip Hop News > HipHopDX.com
5. Archived July 28, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.