"Bad and Boujee" is a song by American hip-hop group Migos featuring vocals from American rapper Lil Uzi Vert. It was released on October 28, 2016 as the lead single from their second studio albumCulture. It was released by Quality Control Music, 300 Entertainment, and Atlantic Records. The song was produced by Metro Boomin, with co-production by G Koop. In late December 2016, "Bad and Boujee" became an Internet phenomenon, spawning many memes with the lyrics "rain drop, drop top". This viral trend, combined with Donald Glover's shoutout at the 2017 Golden Globes, would help its commercial performance and cause the song to spike into the top ten and later peak at number one on the US BillboardHot 100 for the week of January 21, 2017, making it the first number one single for both Migos and Lil Uzi Vert. The single received a nomination for Best Rap Performance at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.
Complex placed it at number 24 on its The 50 Best Songs of 2016 list, saying; "The track is lurching and confident, the kind of song that's sure of its own appeal but knows not to step outside of the pocket. It seems like an unlikely hit, but try listening just once". Pigeons & Planes ranked it at number 43 on their Best Songs of 2016 list, saying that the "track is really all about Offset". The Fader ranked the song at number 25 on its The 115 Best Songs of 2016 list. Fact named it as one of the 20 best rap and R&B tracks of 2016. Vulture favorably compared "Bad and Boujee" to James Brown's song "Super Bad".
Chart performance
The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the first chart-topping single for both Migos and Lil Uzi Vert. A week after its peak, it was dethroned by Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You", but retrieved its peak position the following week and stood there for two more weeks before being replaced by "Shape of You" again. It remained in the top ten of the chart for 14 consecutive weeks and was later ranked as the sixth biggest song of 2017. "Bad and Boujee" has also peaked at number five in Canada, making it Migos and Lil Uzi Vert's first charted single in that country. As of June 20, 2017, the song has sold 4,000,000 units in the United States. The song was certified 4× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Music video
The Daps-directed music video for "Bad and Boujee" premiered via Migos' YouTube channel on October 31, 2016. It features cameo appearances from rappers Travis Scott and OG Maco. In an interview with Kiss FM Kenya, director Daps revealed the inspiration behind the concept of the viral music video: "The concept came about from the title really. 'Bad' is good looking so we needed pretty ladies and 'boujee' is stuck up so we needed them to play that part. I like having juxtapositions in my videos as it makes the art stand out. The contrast between these ladies dressed in high fashion but having them in regular environments grasped me. Then it was about adding in little elements after that — the doves, the noodles, Ace of Spades, silk shirts on a dirt bike." , the video on YouTube has over 900 million views.
Response to Takeoff's omission
While he can be seen in one of the background scenes in the music video, Takeoff is not featured nor credited on the song. The member himself has stated that he was not featured because he was busy at the time. On June 24, 2017, during the filming of Complexs Everyday Struggle at the BET Awards 2017, he was questioned about his absence, to which he replied, "Do it look like I'm left off 'Bad and Boujee'?" Since the interview numerous Internet memes have appeared, mocking his response as the interviewers could not hear him properly, asking him to repeat the answer and leaning towards him to hear better. They later stated that the reason they could not hear his answer was that there was a lot of noise around them and he was not speaking loud enough, but fans have made jokes that he was not speaking clearly, often jokingly posting excessively misspelled quotes of the response on social media, implying that Takeoff mumbled while responding to the question.
The song is featured in the television show Black-ish. "Bougie", originating from bourgeoisie, has been a popularly referenced term within African American cultural media. Due to the mass proliferation of Migos's "Bad and Boujee" it was introduced to mainstream music, 'bougie', 'boujee', and other related terms quickly rose to popularity within all forms of social media.
