Black and Yellow

"Black and Yellow"
Single by Wiz Khalifa
from the album Rolling Papers
ReleasedSeptember 14, 2010
GenreHip hop[1]
Length3:37
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Stargate
Wiz Khalifa singles chronology
"This Plane"
(2009) 		"Black and Yellow"
(2010) 		"Roll Up"
(2011)
Audio sample

"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.[2] The song peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Wiz Khalifa's first number-one single in the US.[3]

The song is about growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and also Khalifa's car, a yellow Dodge Challenger Hemi with black stripes.[4] He has stated that he got the car in those colors as a tribute to his hometown of Pittsburgh, whose official colors are black and gold, and its professional sports teams, all of whose colors are black and some variation of gold or yellow.[4] 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 U.S. and internationally, many of them made in tribute to a local sports team.[5][6][7] 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.[8] The song earned Khalifa his first Grammy nominations, for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance at the 2012 ceremony.[9]

  1. ^ "A$AP Rocky and Wiz Khalifa review – growling god among men and laid-back lothario". The Guardian. October 18, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2021.
  2. ^ "Record Store Day – Wiz Khalifa". Record Store Day.com. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
  3. ^ "Wiz Khalifa's "Black And Yellow" Spawns A Litany Of Remixes To Remember". MTV.com. February 5, 2011. Archived from the original on September 27, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
  4. ^ a b "Black and Yellow by Wiz Khalifa on Songfacts.com". Retrieved July 3, 2013.
  5. ^ Mapes, Jillian (January 13, 2011). "Watch: 4 Remakes of Wiz Khalifa's 'Black & Yellow'". Billboard. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
  6. ^ JNR (February 26, 2011). "'Birmingham – Blue and White'". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2011.
  7. ^ Seany (February 26, 2011). "'Rot & Weiß'". YouTube. Retrieved April 23, 2011.[dead YouTube link]
  8. ^ Szalai, Georg (February 4, 2011). "Wiz Khalifa Explains Super Bowl Song 'Black and Yellow' (VIDEO)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  9. ^ Durling, Ryan. "Complete List of 2012 Grammy Nominees (LIST)". www.americaninno.com. Retrieved April 4, 2021.