"911" is a duet between rap

Rapping

Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...

 singer Wyclef Jean

Wyclef Jean

Wyclef Jean is a Haitian musician, record producer, and politician. At age nine, Jean moved to the United States with his family and has spent much of his life in the country...

 and soul music

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 singer Mary J. Blige

Mary J. Blige

Mary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...

. It was released in the summer of 2000 off Wyclef's second disc, The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book

The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book

The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book is the second studio album released by Haitian singer Wyclef Jean. It was certified platinum in the UK in 2001...

and was later included on Blige's compilation Reflections (A Retrospective). The song had success worldwide, particularly in Scandinavian countries.

Music and video

The song depicted two star-crossed lovers in a web of drama with the male narrator running from police while the female narrator worries forlornly over him. Outside influences are spoke about as evading both of their lives into saying "messing around with you is gonna get (the man) life" though they feel "it's worth the sacrifice".

It samples Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians' "What I Am", some excerpts can be found in the mix versions from James Brown's "The Payback".

Chart performances and awards

"911" was a hit for the two singers as it reached #38 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. The song was very successful in Sweden and in Norway where it reached number-one for almost two months. It earned a Platinum disc

Music recording sales certification

Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...

 in Norway. It was also a top ten hit in Ireland, UK, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland.

It was nominated for a Grammy

Grammy Awards of 2001

The 43rd Grammy Awards were held on February 21, 2001. Steely Dan was the biggest winner winning three awards including Album of the Year for Two Against Nature. U2 was also a big winner winning three awards as well; including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for Beautiful Day. Dr...

 for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a duo or group in 2001.

Track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "911".
U.S.

• 5-inch single
  CD5
  CD5 or CD-5 may be:* Child development-5, for five-year old children, a more developmentally appropriate acronym for kindergarten* cluster of differentiation 5 molecule, type I transmembrane protein* compact disc, 5-inch CD, usually music CD...
  
  

1. "911" (radio edit) — 4:07
   • Vocals - MB² , Mary J. Blige
2. "911" (ghetto love remix) — 4:04
   • Vocals - MB , Mary J. Blige
3. "Younger Days" — 5:01
4. "It Doesn't Matter" (live version) — 8:26
   • Featuring - Melky Sedeck
     Melky Sedeck
     Melky Sedeck is a Haitian-American R&B hip hop sibling duo. The name of the group is drawn from the names of singer Blandinna Melky Jean and her multi-instrumentalist brother Farel Sedeck Guerschom Jean. The name of the group is an allusion to Melchizedek, a figure from Christian and Jewish...
     
     , The Rock

• 3-inch single
  CD3
  CD3 or CD-3 may be:* CD3 , an antigen, cluster of differentiation protein , part of the T cell receptor complex on a mature T lymphocyte* Ford CD3 platform* MediaMax CD-3, copy protection scheme* MiniCD, a 3-inch CD...
  
  

1. "911" (radio edit) — 4:06
2. "Ghetto Love" (remix) — 4:01
   • Remix - Wyclef Jean

Australia

• 5-inch single

1. "911" (emergency remix) — 4:23
2. "911" (radio edit) — 4:06
3. "911" (ghetto love remix) — 4:01
4. "Younger Days" — 5:00
5. "It Doesn't Matter" (remix) — 4:05
   • Rap [Featuring] - Hope

• Single : also released with different cover and with the "(I'm in trouble, I'm in real big trouble)" subtitle.

Europe

• CD maxi

1. "911 (radio edit) — 4:06
2. "911 (ghetto love remix) — 4:01
3. "Younger Days" — 5:00
4. "It Doesn't Matter" (live) — 8:26

• CD single

1. "911" (radio edit) — 4:06
2. "911" (ghetto love remix) — 4:01

Personnel

• Recorded and mixed at the Hit Factory (NYC)
• Co-producer - Sedeck
• Engineer - Andy Grassi , Michael McCoy
• Mixing - Andy Grassi
• Producer - Jerry Duplessis , Wyclef Jean
• Vocals - Mary J. Blige
• Backing vocals - MB
• Video director - Marcus Raboy
  Marcus Raboy
  Marcus Raboy is an American film and music video director.Since the early 1990s, Raboy has amassed a large number music video credits directing music videos for Mary J...
  
  
• Video editing - Bruce Ashley

Charts

Chart (2000/01)	Peak position
Austrian Singles Chart	21
Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart	16
Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart	11
Danish Singles Chart	9
Dutch Mega Top 100	8
Finnish Singles Chart	4
French SNEP Singles Chart	11
German Singles Chart	12
Irish IRMA Singles Chart	10
Norwegian Singles Chart	1
Swedish Singles Chart	1
Swiss Singles Chart	9
UK Singles Chart	9
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	38
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs	6

End of year chart (2000)	Position
Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart	99
Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart	57
French Singles Chart	54
Swiss Singles Chart	62

Certifications

Country	Certification	Date	Sales certified
France	Silver	May 16, 2001	125,000
Norway	Platinum	2001	10,000

Successions