Break It Off

"Break It Off" is a song written by D. Bennett, K. Ford, Sean Paul, and Barbadian R&B singer Rihanna. The song, which featured Sean Paul, was the fourth and final single from Rihanna's second album A Girl like Me and was released only in the United States, Canada, and select European territories. The song was performed during the Rockin' New Year's Eve '07 television special on January 1, 2007 at Times Square in New York City. Rihanna has previously stated that she is very proud of the song because it charted strongly without a music video. In the song Rihanna sings the chorus and a verse, while Sean Paul sings the rest of the song. The song uses the dancehall riddim "High Altitude". Although she had written a number of songs on her first two albums, this song was the first of her singles in which she had a hand in writing. She subsequently wrote the chorus and her verse on "Run This Town" with Jay-Z and Kanye West.

Promotion

"Break It Off" was performed in many different places and arenas all over the world. She performed it for New Year's Eve 2007 and in lots of concerts such as BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend and Live Earth. It is performed for only one minute and a half at concerts as a medley because Sean Paul performs more words than Rihanna.

Chart performance

It debuted at number eight on the U.S. Hot Digital Songs chart, selling 75,316 downloads. This release to the digital market prompted the song to jump from number fifty-two to number ten in one week on the Billboard Hot 100 later reaching its peak of number nine.^[1] The song has sold 1,000,000 paid digital downloads in the United States, according to Nielsen Soundscan.

Music video

A video for the song was expected to premiere sometime in December 2006. However, both Def Jam Recordings and Atlantic Records said there will be no music video for the song. About that, Sean Paul stated:

The performance from New Year's Eve 2007 is sometimes used as a music video for the single.

Charts

References