Live Your Life

"Live Your Life" is a song by American rapper T.I. off his sixth album Paper Trail. The song features Barbadian pop singer Rihanna, who uses a vocoder, and was produced by Just Blaze and Canei Finch. It was released as the third single from the album. It officially premiered at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards during T.I.'s performance. This is T.I's third Billboard Hot 100 number one single in the United States (after "My Love" with Justin Timberlake and his previous single "Whatever You Like") and Rihanna's fifth on the same chart (after "SOS", "Umbrella", "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia"). The song samples of O-Zone's "Dragostea din Tei".

On October 15, 2008, the song was added to BBC Radio 1's B List and has since been moved to the A List. In the United Kingdom it was released as a Digital Download on November 8 and physically released on November 24, it reached #2 on downloads alone, becoming T.I.'s first top five hit in the UK and Rihanna's ninth top five hit in that country.

According to Billboard, the song has reached Platinum sales (RIAA).

Release

The first version of the song leaked onto the Internet on August 26, earlier than the award performance, although that version was not the mastered version. The official mastered album version, which has Rihanna's own verse, and T.I.'s dedication to soldiers on the Iraqi battlefield (on the first part, he told "Ay... This a special what's haapnin' to all my, all my soldiers over there in Iraq. Errbody right here, what you need to do is be thankful for the life you got you know what I'm sayin'? Stop lookin' at what you ain't got, start and and be thankful for what you do got. Let's get it to 'em baby girl") has already been released as a promotional digital download for radio stations. The radio edit clocks out at 4:05, the album version is the same as above except Rihanna's verse is longer, T.I.'s intro is longer, the chorus is extended and the sample is used at the end, the album version clocks out at 5:39.

The song contains a rendition of the O-Zone song "Dragostea Din Tei,", a number one single throughout Europe but also known from the Numa Numa Internet fad.

Formats and track listing

Promo CD single

1. "Live Your Life" (Clean) (Featuring Rihanna) - 4:05
2. "Live Your Life" (Instrumental) - 5:45
3. "Live Your Life" (Explicit Radio Edit) (Featuring Rihanna) - 4:02
4. "Live Your Life" (Explicit Album Version) (Featuring Rihanna) - 5:38

U.K. CD single

1. "Live Your Life" (Explicit Album Version) (Featuring Rihanna) - 5:38

Australian CD single

1. "Live Your Life" (Radio Edit) (Featuring Rihanna)
2. "Collect Call"
3. "No Matter What"

Chart performance

"Live Your Life" debuted at #80 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart solely on airplay for the chart week of October 10, 2008. The following week, the song made history and broke several records when it skyrocketed from 80-1 on the Hot 100, setting the record for the highest jump to number one, a record previously set by T.I. himself only six weeks prior when his song "Whatever You Like" jumped 71-1 on the chart. However, this record was broken the following week by Britney Spears and her song Womanizer jumping from 96-1 on the Hot 100. "Live Your Life" also replaced "Whatever You Like" at number one on the Hot 100, making T.I. the ninth artist to ever replace themselves at number one on the chart, and the first time since Usher did it in 2004. "Whatever You Like" also occupied the number two position on the Hot 100 that week, making it the first time an artist has held the number one and number two positions simultaneously since Akon in 2006. In addition, the song broke the record for second highest first week digital sales ever, behind of Flo Rida's "Low", shifting 334,000 digital downloads to debut at number one on the Hot Digital Songs chart. It is T.I.'s second Hot 100 number one as a lead artist, and his third overall. On the issue dated November 15, "Live your Life" again jumped to the number one spot this time again overthrowing T.I.'s massive hit "Whatever You Like" from the top spot again. He is the only artist to replace himself twice on the Hot 100 with the same song. For the issue dated December 6, "Live your Life" topped the Pop 100 chart in the U.S., replacing Katy Perry's "Hot N Cold" from the top spot, making it T.I.'s first ever #1 hit on that chart. On the issue dated December 14, Live Your Life regained the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a third time. The single held the #1 spot for 6 non-consecutive weeks.

The song originally debuted at #7 on Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles before entering Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs as the week's "Hot Shot" at number 77 and rising the following week up to number 38, an impressive 39-place jump, so far reaching the top ten at #7. It has also made a "Hot Shot Debut" at #20 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart on the issue of October 11, and jumped to #5 the following week, making it his biggest hit there, it peaked at #4 in early January. The song debuted at #3 on the Irish Singles Chart, giving T.I. his highest charting single there, and Rihanna her tenth top ten there. However, in the week ending November 6, "Live Your Life" disappeared on the Irish Top 50, but re-entered at #9. T.I。 currently has two top ten hits on the RIANZ singles chart, with 'Live Your Life' at #7 and 'Whatever You Like' at #1.

On the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, the song debuted in its first week at number 48, jumped up to 25, and has so far peaked at #5. It debuted on the Australian ARIA Physical Singles Chart at number 10 on the 17th of November, and has so far peaked at #7 on that chart. Also, it has peaked so far at number 4 on the ARIA Digital Tracks Chart.

In the UK, the song entered at #16 on the UK iTunes chart and within hours of being available, it had reached #1. The Single debuted at #39 on the official UK Singles Chart, eventually peaking at #2.

Music video

The video premiered on October 28, 2008 on BET. The video is a mini-movie starring T.I and Rihanna. The music video uses the radio edit of the extended song. In the opening scene T.I is walking. The song then starts and goes from a series of underground shots and Rihanna in her dressing room. T.I. goes back to walking and is shown with blood all over his face and other various cuts. He gets thrown out of the car and kicked by a fairly large man. He arrives at a drug deal with about ten dealers. He then proceeds as usual before he lands a punch on one of the dealers. He is then beaten up by the rest of the dealers. The video then takes its turn with going from T.I. singing in a recording studio to him and in front of a house playing dice and dominoes with some of his friends. A quick shot of the bathroom appears with T.I. looking at his briefcase of money that he is preparing. The rest of the video takes turns going from the bar where T.I. refuses a deal and Rihanna singing on stage. The end of the video shows T.I. saying he wants out of the deal and he is seen walking into the bar with a CD in his hand. This is a flashback, referring, apparently, to the original deal that T.I. wanted to get out of. The last shot of the video is T.I. walking down the L.A. sewers, raising his hands triumphantly in the air.

Remix

Remixes & Freestyles

1. "Royce Da 5'9 - I'm Nice (Live Your Life Freestyle)
2. "Trey Songz - Live Your Life (Freestyle)
3. "Rick Ross - Live Your Life (Freestyle)

Charts

Chart (2008)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	3
Austrian Singles Chart	5
Eurochart Hot 100 Singles	4
Canadian Hot 100	4
Danish Singles Chart	15
Dutch Top 40	5
German Singles Chart	12
Irish Singles Chart	3
Israeli Singles Chart	12
French Singles Chart	17
New Zealand Singles Chart	2
Norwegian Singles Chart	6
Slovakia Singles Chart Top 30	11
Swedish Singles Chart	6
Swiss Singles Chart	8
Turkey Top 20 Chart	3
UK Singles Chart	2
UK R&B Chart	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	1
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs	2
U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks	1