"Who Gon Stop Me" is a song by American rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West from their collaborative studio album, Watch the Throne (2011). The song features additional vocals from Mr Hudson, Swizz Beatz, and Verse Simmonds. It was produced by Sham "Sak Pase" Joseph and West with additional production from Mike Dean; the producers served as co-writers with Jay-Z, Simmonds, and Flux Pavilion. The song's concept came from Simmonds and Joseph, the former of whom followed Jay-Z and West's mindset to write the hook.

Flux Pavilion believed the song differed from his sampled track "I Can't Stop", after Jay-Z and West added their own work. An experimental track that combines dubstep and grime with rap music, "Who Gon Stop Me" prominently samples Flux Pavilion's "I Can't Stop". Lyrically, the song sees West expressing his determination to live a lifestyle of extravaganza and Jay-Z honoring his success from their positions as African Americans. The song received moderately positive reviews from music critics, who mostly highlighted West's performance. Some praised its dubstep sound, while critics were more lukewarm towards Jay-Z's performance and were mixed towards his lyricism.

The song reached numbers 44 and 60 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian Hot 100, respectively. It received a gold certification in the United States from the Recording Industry Association of America. Jay-Z and West performed "Who Gon Stop Me" live on their Watch the Throne Tour (2011–2012), later beginning their set with the song at Samsung Galaxy's South by Southwest concert in 2014. It is featured in Baz Luhrmann's historical romance drama film The Great Gatsby (2013), an adaptation of the 1925 novel of the same name.

Jay-Z and West are both American rappers who have collaborated on several tracks together, such as the singles "Swagga Like Us" (2008), "Run This Town" (2009), and "Monster" (2010).^[1][2] In 2010, the rappers began production and recording together for a collaborative record titled Watch the Throne.^[2] In July 2011, Puerto Rican rapper Verse Simmonds said that he started working with his production partner Sham "Sak Pase" Joseph immediately on Watch the Throne after being recruited by Def Jam's artists and repertoire Vice President Bu Thiam. The duo dedicated a week to recording, taking influence from British electronic dance music for "Who Gon Stop Me", and Simmonds sought dubstep material while maintaining a hip hop feel.^[3] Simmonds and Joseph came up with the song's lyrical concept after they started its creation; the beat was crafted by the producer and the rapper wrote the chorus. He placed himself in the mindset of Jay-Z and West to pen the hook, apparently receiving comparisons to how the rappers sound when he recorded his reference track.^[3] Simmonds and Joseph naturally found their chemistry in the studio as they bounced off of different sounds there, not feeling under pressure when creating.^[4] The rapper contributed additional vocals to the song, along with Mr Hudson and Swizz Beatz.^[5]

"Who Gon Stop Me" was produced by Joseph with West, while Mike Dean contributed additional production. The producers co-wrote the song with Jay-Z, Simmonds, and English dubstep producer Flux Pavilion.^[5] In March 2012, Flux Pavilion told HipHopDX that he was not able to truly identify the feeling of being recognized outside of his genre, particularly by artists of Jay-Z and West's fame, after the song's sample of "I Can't Stop". Flux Pavilion saw the recognition as "absolutely magical" after he crafted the beat in his bedroom and questioned if the rappers were aware of this, feeling happiness about "I Can't Stop" as one of his favourite recordings despite doubting just how good it was.^[6] The producer appreciated "Who Gon Stop Me" for differentiating from his recording and believed it would not be Jay-Z and West's track if they had only rapped over his beat, instead of adding their own work.^[6]

Musically, "Who Gon Stop Me" is an experimental track,^[7] combining dubstep and grime with rap music.^[8][9][10] The song relies on samples of Flux Pavilion's "I Can't Stop" in the production, incorporating the recording's drop during West's chorus and using its synths.^[9][10][11] West's voice is distorted into a growl while he mutters on the chorus and the song includes a heavy bassline,^[12] which cuts out for its beat switch.^[7][10] The beat switch features sirens and liquified synths during its coda,^[13] as Jay-Z raps for the last two minutes and takes brief pauses while speeding up his pace.^[9][10]

In the lyrics of "Who Gon Stop Me", West expresses determination to live a highly extravagant lifestyle after having managed to inspire black youths looking for success. On the hook, West compares the victims of the likes of inner-city violence,^[9] slavery, and poverty throughout American history to the Holocaust for the millions of people lost.^[12] He also addresses haters and struggles from the past by rapping "Til I die/ I'mma fuckin ball".^[14] Jay-Z honors his own success in the face of African American oppression,^[15] believing that he could achieve this again if he had to restart.^[12] He raps about his criminal past and offers a "middle finger" to his former life, congratulating himself on graduating "from the corner" despite not having a diploma.^[9][16]

On August 8, 2011, "Who Gon Stop Me" was included as the ninth track on Jay-Z and West's collaborative studio album Watch The Throne, released by their record labels Def Jam, Roc Nation, and Roc-A-Fella.^[17] The song was met with lukewarm reviews from music critics, with general praise for West's vocals. Spin journalist Brandon Soderberg depicted the dubstep sample of "I Can't Stop" as giving "a tangible menace to this beat" through being repurposed "to score Kanye's provocative yelp" about violence and Jay-Z's lyrics about his troubled past then his present success, finding the latter to move between "two divergent paths" of legal and illegal.^[9] Soderberg highlighted the synths and sirens in the midst of its sample that is followed by West's strong hook conveying the point of "a mass slaughter of people" as a holocaust contrary to how this is framed, with his provocativeness making listeners "reconsider politically loaded language" as the violence in southern and western states is focused on.^[9] Writing for Rolling Stone, Matthew Perpetua felt the song showcases West's vocal talent that is "processed into a sinister, tinny growl" and Jay-Z delivers a worthy performance too.^[7] Erika Ramirez of Billboard described "Who Gon Stop Me" as an ideal song "for wildin'", expressing that Jay-Z and West give "the middle finger" to their haters and past struggles.^[14] Randall Roberts from the Los Angeles Times commented that the song's title echoes the words of kings and despots throughout time as they gain power, showing the rappers as "more nimble and disciplined" than rulers who died such as King Henry VIII.^[18] For Pitchfork, Tom Breihan highlighted it for West swearing in Pig Latin and "turning dubstep-rap into a viable subgenre".^[8] Andy Gill from The Independent picked the song as one from the album to download, although he considered the theme of black-on-black violence to receive "less empathy" than on "Murder to Excellence" as Jay-Z raps about graduating from the corner with no diploma and indicates "disdain for those less able to effect that manoeuvre".^[16]

In a lukewarm review at Urb, James Shahan felt interested in the song's dubstep production and lyrical references ranging from the Holocaust to Oprah Winfrey, although considered the mentions of "black cars, broads, [and] straps" to be hypocritical.^[19] Shahan found West to be a stronger performer than Jay-Z, who he saw as "stretching perhaps a bit too much to just sound comfortable".^[19] Tiny Mix Tapes' Ross Green noted that West's "metallic, frequency-distorted chorus" appears atop the drop from "I Can't Stop" and becomes "the most unexpected grime banger of all time", until the beat switch where Jay-Z uncontrollably delivers "aimless rhymes" with too many pauses of breathing and he felt the album would be improved if this second half was removed.^[10] Focusing on Jay-Z's performance for Spin, Rob Harvilla called the song a determined attempt to hide his narcissism as he tries to impress by mentioning famous painters, providing an "equally goofy but no less effective rise-of-the-machines dystopian squall" that is still stronger than the rapper's 2006 song "Beach Chair".^[20] Providing a mixed review in RapReviews, Jesal 'Jay Soul' Padania described it as "another diverting moment" on Watch the Throne for the influence of British music through dubstep and resemblance to RKZ's "Gonna Be That", though he questioned if West's lines about the Holocaust would cause backlash.^[21] Slant Magazine's Matthew Cole stated that it would be generous to consider the song's "ham-fisted rabble-rousing" merely as bad as rapper Mos Def's worst material with criticism for West's performance, although he believed fellow album track "Made In America" to be worse.^[22] Julian Benbow from The Boston Globe criticized West over the dubstep sampling, which he saw as an example of what Jay-Z had "made a career steering clear of".^[23]

Following the release of Watch the Throne, "Who Gon Stop Me" charted at number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100,^[24] without being released as a single. The debut marked the only track not released as a single from the album to chart on the Hot 100 and it was the result of download numbers alone.^[12] The track debuted at number 19 on the US Digital Songs chart, standing behind Drake's "Headlines" as the second highest debut of the week and it debuted at number six on the component R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales chart.^[25][26] On March 16, 2013, the track entered the US Hot R&B Songs chart at number 21.^[27] In April 2015, "Who Gon Stop Me" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for pushing 500,000 certified units in the United States.^[28] It was also the album's only non-single to chart in Canada, debuting at number 60 on the Canadian Hot 100.^[29]

Throughout Jay-Z and West's Watch the Throne Tour that ran from 2011 until 2012, they performed the song.^[30] During the performance of the song for the tour's opening concert at Philips Arena in Atlanta on October 28, 2011, Jay-Z performed its later lyrics a capella after a technical issue with the music's timing.^[31] For Jay-Z's set at BBC Radio 1's Hackney Weekend on June 23, 2012, he was joined by West to perform the song.^[32] Jay-Z and West performed it at the start of Samsung Galaxy's South by Southwest concert at the Austin Music Hall in Austin, Texas on March 12, 2014, accompanied by red lasers amidst smoke.^[33] The rappers were accompanied by a 12-foot video cube at the center of the stage as they appeared atop large metal boxes, which showed a video of a shark on their screens.^[34][35]

The song was used in Baz Luhrmann's film The Great Gatsby (2013) that is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of the same name, appearing in a scene where Tobey Maguire plays Nick Carraway observes black people drinking Moët in a drop-top car while listening to Jay-Z's "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" (2001).^[36] In 2014, Complex listed "Who Gon Stop Me" among their 25 pregame jams for players from the National Basketball Association for its aspirational inspiration.^[37]

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.^[5]

Recording

• Recorded at (The Mercer) Hotel (New York)
• Mixed at (The Mercer) Hotel (New York)

Personnel

• Kanye West – songwriter, production
• Jay-Z – songwriter
• Sham "Sak Pase" Joseph – songwriter, production
• Mike Dean – songwriter, additional production
• Verse Simmonds – songwriter, additional vocals
• Joshua Kierkegaard – songwriter
• Noah Goldstein – recording engineer
• Anthony Kilhoffer – mix engineer
• Mr Hudson – additional vocals
• Swizz Beatz – additional vocals