"Control Myself" is a song by American rapper

LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, along ...

from his 12th album, ''

Todd Smith Todd Smith may refer to: People * Todd Smith (musician), American singer, songwriter and guitarist * Todd Smith (politician), Canadian politician *Todd Smith (singer), American vocalist and member of Selah *Todd Smith (wrestler), American wrestler ...

'' (2006). The song was written by

Jermaine Dupri Jermaine Dupri Mauldin (born September 23, 1972) is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, record executive, entrepreneur, and DJ. Early life Jermaine Dupri Mauldin was born on September 23, 1972, the son of Tina (Mosley) and Michael ...

, James Phillips,

Ryan Toby City High was an American R&B/ hip hop trio consisting of rappers/singers Ryan Toby, Robbie Pardlo, and Claudette Ortiz. City High is best known for their song " What Would You Do?", which earned a Grammy nomination. Career In 2001, City Hig ...

, John Miller,

Afrika Bambaataa Lance Taylor (born on April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influence ...

, Arthur Baker and

John Robie John Robie is a musician, producer and songwriter who has produced and/or written for a wildly diverse array of artists such as Chaka Khan, New Order, UB40, Cabaret Voltaire, Soulsonic Force, Boy George, C Bank, Planet Patrol, Quadrant 6, ...

. The song was produced by Dupri, with co-production by

LRoc LRoc (born James Elbert Phillips) is an American in-house songwriter and producer at Jermaine Dupri's So So Def Recordings. He has co-written and co-produced singles like Janet Jackson's " Call on Me", Monica's " Everytime Tha Beat Drop", Mari ...

, and features guest vocals from American entertainer

Jennifer Lopez Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series '' In Living Color'', where she re ...

. "Control Myself" contains a

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of ...

of Bambaataa and

Soulsonic Force Soulsonic Force (also referred to as Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force) is an American electro-funk and hip hop ensemble led by Afrika Bambaataa who helped establish hip-hop in the early 1980s with songs such as " Planet Rock." They were also ...

's 1983 song " Looking for the Perfect Beat", while the vocals

interpolate In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points. In engineering and science, one often has ...

Grandmaster Flash Joseph Saddler (born January 1, 1958), popularly known by his stage name Grandmaster Flash, is an American DJ and rapper. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of Hip Hop DJing, cutting, scratching and mixing. Grandmaster Flash and the ...

and

Melle Mel Melvin Glover (born May 15, 1961 in The Bronx), better known by his stage name Grandmaster Melle Mel (or simply Melle Mel) () is an American hip hop recording artist who was the lead vocalist and songwriter of Grandmaster Flash and the Furi ...

's 1983 song "

White Lines (Don't Don't Do It) "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" is a song by American hip hop recording artist Melle Mel, released as a 12" in 1983 on Sugar Hill Records. The song, which warns against the dangers of cocaine, addiction, and drug smuggling, is one of Mel's ...

" and Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force's 1982 song " Planet Rock".

Release

"Control Myself" was released as the album's

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

in February 2006 and remained on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart for eleven weeks, peaking at number four. After being released as a digital download in April 2006, the song debuted at number two on the ''Billboard''

Hot Digital Songs The Digital Songs or Digital Song Sales chart (previously named Hot Digital Songs) ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by ''Billboard'' magazine. Although it originally starte ...

chart and made a strong Hot 100 re-entry at number four. This broke a record previously held by

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one o ...

's 1998 song " Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)", which had re-entered the chart in March 1999 at number 20. The song also peaked at number two in the United Kingdom, where Smith and Lopez's previous collaboration, " All I Have", had achieved the same feat in March 2003.

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

was directed by

Hype Williams Harold Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video director, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Early life Williams was born in Queens, New York. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Ade ...

and was filmed at Sony Studios in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on January 2, 2006. It debuted in the U.S. on February 13, 2006 and in Europe on February 19, 2006. Like some of Williams' other videos, video footage is displayed where black bars would appear on a 4:3 TV for a widescreen production. The video peaked at number two on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's ''

Total Request Live ''Total Request Live'' (known commonly as ''TRL'') was an American television program broadcast on MTV that premiered on September 14, 1998. TRL featured popular music videos played during its countdown, and was also used as a promotion tool by ...

'', number three on

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

's ''

106 & Park ''106 & Park'' is an American hip hop and R&B music video show, set up in a countdown format, that was broadcast on weekdays at 6:00 pm ET/5:00 pm CT on BET; it aired on a one-day delay on BET International. It was the network's highest- rate ...

'', and number eighteen on VH1's ''

VSpot Top 20 Countdown ''The 20'' (previously known as the ''VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown'') is a weekly television show that aired on the VH1 cable television network in the United States. The long-running series began in 1995 as the ''VH1 Top 10 Countdown'', part of VH1 ...

''.

Track listings and formats

European CD single # "Control Myself" – 3:56 # "Control Myself" (

Jason Nevins Jason Nevins (born December 15, 1972) is an American songwriter, record producer and remixer, who is most widely known for his pop and dance productions, including his multi-platinum, multi-million selling production of " It's Like That" by Ameri ...

Funktek Edit) – 4:02 European CD maxi single # "Control Myself" – 3:56 # "Control Myself" (Jason Nevins Funktek Edit) – 4:02 # "Control Myself" (Instrumental) – 3:54 # "Control Myself" (Video) US 12-inch single :A1. "Control Myself" (Radio) – 3:54 :A2. "Control Myself" (Instrumental) – 3:54 :B1. "Control Myself" (Radio) – 3:54 :B2. "Control Myself" (Instrumental) – 3:54 UK 12-inch single :A1. "Control Myself" (Album Version) – 3:54 :A2. "Control Myself" (Instrumental) – 3:54 :B1. "Control Myself" (Jason Nevins Electrotex Club Mix) – 8:53 German 12-inch single :A. "Control Myself" (Explicit Version) – 3:58 :B. "Control Myself" (Instrumental) – 3:54

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Sales and certifications

Release history

References

External links

* {{Jennifer Lopez songs 2006 songs 2006 singles Def Jam Recordings singles Jennifer Lopez songs LL Cool J songs Music videos directed by Hype Williams Songs written by Jermaine Dupri Songs written by John Robie Songs written by LL Cool J Songs written by LRoc Songs written by Ryan Toby