"Turn Down for What" is a single by DJ Snake and Lil Jon released on December 18, 2013. The song and its viral music video popularized the use of the phrase.

Lil Jon and DJ Snake had met several years prior to recording the song. In December 2013, "Turn Down for What" was premiered on Columbia Records website and released via iTunes shortly after. In an interview about the song, DJ Snake said,

When I hit up the big homie Jon and asked him if he wanted to be on the track, this song is a pretty balling song. He heard the beat and was instantly down with the vision. What he sent me back, though, absolutely blew my mind. I knew Jon was one of the best, but he absolutely killed it on this joint.

Lil Jon said in an interview,

When DJ Snake sent me the track with a sample and he wanted me to redo it with my voice. When I heard the song I was like this beat is too crazy for that sample. I wanted to make it hip and current, and the first thing that came to mind was the phrase 'Turn Down for What!'

"Turn Down for What" contains the lyrics of Lil Jon's powerful and iconic voice rapping "Fire up that loud, another round of shots" and "Turn down for what" throughout the song. It also contains bass and trap music elements that are original to Atlanta, GA, Lil Jon's hometown. "Turn Down for What" is written in the E Phrygian mode and is set in common time at a moderate tempo of 100 beats per minute.

"Turn Down for What" entered the top 10 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic chart during the last week of December. In January 2014, the single entered the top 5 on the Dance/Electronic chart and debuted at No. 38 on Billboard's Hot 100. It peaked at number 4 on the chart, becoming DJ Snake's first and Lil Jon's ninth top ten, and was certified gold in February 2014. It reached its first million copies sold in the U.S. in March 2014. The song reached its 3 million sales mark in July 2014. It became the seventh best-selling song of 2014 in the US with 3,449,000 copies sold for the year.

"Turn Down for What" received generally positive reviews from music critics and publications. Rolling Stone voted "Turn Down For What" as the second best song of the year 2014, saying, "The year's nutsiest party jam was also the perfect protest banger for a generation fed up with everything. DJ Snake brings the synapse-rattling EDM and Southern trap music; Lil Jon brings the dragon-fire holler for a hilarious, glorious, glowstick-punk fuck you." In January 2015, "Turn Down for What" was ranked at No. 9, tied with Beyoncé's "Flawless", on The Village Voice's annual year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll.

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Wikipedia