Format Digital download Genre Hip hop Label We the Best
Epic | Recorded 2016 Length 3:03 | |
Released June 17, 2016 (2016-06-17) | ||
"For Free" is a single by DJ Khaled, featuring Canadian rapper Drake, released on June 17, 2016 by We the Best Music Group and Epic Records as the lead single from DJ Khaled's ninth studio album, Major Key. The song was produced by Nineteen85 and Jordan Ullman. The song was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) September 15, 2016, for selling over 1,000,000 digital copies in the United States.
Contents
Background
On Snapchat, DJ Khaled talked about "the Drake vocals finally [being] in", referencing the then unreleased song. The song samples lyrics and cadences from Too Short's "Blow the Whistle" and interpolates Akinyele's "Fuck Me For Free" produced by platinum producer Frankie Cutlass. The single was premiered by Zane Lowe on Beats 1 Radio on June 3. One of Drake's verses pay homage to Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly song, "For Free? (Interlude)" with a lyric that states, "and like your boy from Compton said/You know this dick ain’t free."
Commercial performance
On the chart dated June 25, 2016, "For Free" entered the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 18, powered by first-week digital download sales of 104,748 copies. It became DJ Khaled's second highest-charting single peaking at number 13 in its ninth week (behind 2011's "I'm On One" with Drake, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne). In Great Britain, the song has peaked at number 25, while peaking at number 47 in Canada and at number 79 in France, making it Khaled's most successful single in those countries.