"Black and Yellow" is a song by American rapper Wiz Khalifa from his third studio album, Rolling Papers. It was released on September 14, 2010, as the lead single from the album. The song was written by Khalifa, along with Stargate, who produced it. It was released as a CD single in honor of Record Store Day. The song peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Wiz Khalifa's first number-one single in the US; he would top the chart again in 2015 with "See You Again". The song is about Khalifa's car, a yellow Dodge Challenger Hemi with black stripes. He has stated that he got the car in those colors as a tribute to his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, whose official colors are black and gold, and its professional sports teams, most of whose colors are black and some variation of gold or yellow. The song itself does not mention Pittsburgh or sports, although the song's music video made the connection to Pittsburgh explicit, showing various iconic locations in the city, as well as apparel associated with the football team the Pittsburgh Steelers, the hockey team the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the baseball team the Pittsburgh Pirates. In the year after it was released, "Black and Yellow" spawned dozens of remixes, parodies and remakes, both in the US and internationally, many of them made in tribute to a local sports team. At Super Bowl XLV in 2011, which featured the Steelers competing against the Green Bay Packers, the Steelers used "Black and Yellow" as their fight song, while the Packers used a remix by Lil' Wayne called "Green and Yellow", marking the first time both teams at the Super Bowl had used the same song.
Chart performance
On the issue dated October 2, 2010, "Black and Yellow" debuted at No. 100 on the Billboard Hot 100. It then dropped out the following week and re-entered at No. 64 on the issue dated October 30, 2010. On its eighteenth charting week, the song rose to No. 1 on the issue dated February 19, 2011, selling 198,000 digital copies that week. "Black and Yellow" has sold 4,144,922 digital copies since release.
In a 2012 commercial for the video game Madden NFL 13, Paul Rudd sings the song while playing the game as the Pittsburgh Steelers against Ray Lewis.
On April 7, 2014, Jimmy Kimmel Live! held a skit called "American Sign Language Rap Battle." Khalifa performed the song as three ASL-certified interpreters competed.
The song was featured in multiple trailers for The Lego Batman Movie.
Remixes
The official remix, "Black & Yellow " features west-coast rapper Snoop Dogg, Juicy J and R&B singer T-Pain. Wiz Khalifa has a new verse on the track. The song leaked on December 12, 2010 but was officially released on December 16. A video for the remix was shot and was released on January 8, 2011. A remix by T-Pain, "Black & Yellow ", featured the verse that was later put on the official remix. An anime version fan remix was also made combining the song and Hidamari Sketch's opening music, Sketch Switch.
Track listing
Digital download
"Black and Yellow" – 3:37
Digital download
"Black and Yellow" – 4:38
Remakes and freestyles
Many remakes have been made, mostly in tribute to other sports teams, referring to their respective pair of colors. Some of the notable remakes include:
"Purp & Yellow" by The Game, Snoop Dogg, and YG, representing the Los Angeles Lakers. This version also had a remix produced by DJ Skee, with a rock-instrumented backing track; a music video for the DJ Skee remix featured the artists as well as members of the Lakers. An extended mix was released the next day, also featuring Kendrick Lamar, Joe Moses and Thurzday.
In addition, a number of freestyle versions have been released, of artists rapping over "Black and Yellow"'s instrumental track, without any overt reference to the song or to sports teams. These include versions by Crooked I, Donnis, Young Jeezy, Tyga, Novi Novak, and Layzie Bone and Flesh-n-Bone of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.
