"Face Off" is a song by American rapper

Tech N9ne Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8, 1971), better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (pronounced "tech nine"), is an American rapper and singer. In 1999, he and business partner Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music. He has sold ...

featuring fellow American rappers Joey Cool and King Iso and American entertainer

Dwayne Johnson Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor and professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on a part-time basis. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional w ...

. It was released on October 8, 2021, as the lead single from Tech N9ne's twenty-third studio album '' Asin9ne''. The song also features uncredited vocals from rapper

Krizz Kaliko Samuel William Christopher Watson (born March 7, 1974), better known by his stage name Krizz Kaliko, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and voice actor. He is a longtime collaborator with fellow hometown native Tech N9ne and was signed t ...

and was produced by Seven.

Background

In 2020, Tech N9ne contacted Dwayne Johnson about the song through

private message In computer networking, a private message, personal message, or direct message (abbreviated as PM or DM) refers to a private communication, often text-based, sent or received by a user of a private communication channel on any given platform. Unli ...

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

and suggested a collaboration. Tech initially had the idea of Johnson reciting spoken words of motivation to close out the song, but Johnson ended up writing his own lyrics to the song. Johnson's verse was inspired from a conversation that he and N9ne had when they were on the set of the comedy-drama series ''

Ballers ''Ballers'' is an American sports comedy-drama series created by Stephen Levinson that aired for five seasons on HBO from June 21, 2015, to October 13, 2019. It stars Dwayne Johnson as a retired NFL player who must navigate his new career as th ...

'', about being the "hardest worker in the room"; Johnson told ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', "He said something that I really appreciated: basically, 'There could never be enough food in this room or on this set that could make me full because I always want to be hungry.' I just love that." The message of the song revolves around

work ethic Work ethic is a belief that work and diligence have a moral benefit and an inherent ability, virtue or value to strengthen character and individual abilities. Desire or determination to work serves as the foundation for values centered on the i ...

. Regarding the song, Tech N9ne said, "This is an energy song. This is going to get people pumped up to lift weights, pumped up for fights, pumped up for the game. Period." He also stated that as the reason he wanted Johnson to appear on the track. While on the phone, Johnson structured his verse with N9ne, who helped him with his word structure, cadence and flow. They had already planned to end with the words "extreme mana", so they worked backwards. After that, he went into the studio with his wife, Lauren Hashian. According to Johnson, he took "three big swigs" of Teremana tequila and then recorded his verse in one take. The recording had occurred during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Composition and lyrics

The song contains a hook from Krizz Kaliko: "Rumble / They gon' take your face off / They gon' rumble / They gon' take your face off". Dwayne Johnson raps the final verse of the track in a similar manner to that of the other rappers in terms of speed and intensity: "It's about drive, it's about power, we stay hungry, we devour / Put in the work, put in the hours and take what's ours / Black and Samoan in my veins, my culture bangin' with

Strange Strange may refer to: Fiction * Strange (comic book), a comic book limited series by Marvel Comics * Strange (Marvel Comics), one of a pair of Marvel Comics characters known as The Strangers * Adam Strange, a DC Comics superhero * The title c ...

/ I change the game, so what's my motherfuckin' name?" The song ends with an outro from Johnson, who thanks his "brother" Tech N9ne and his own tequila brand Teremana, and brags, "One take, that's a wrap. Face off."

Reception

"Face Off" has received positive reviews from critics and fans alike, with praise especially directed toward Johnson's performance. Writing for '' Consequence'', Wren Graves commented, "You might not want to award him a

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

just yet, but it's definitely not history's most embarrassing celebrity rap." William Hughes of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'' described Johnson placing last in the order of verses as "extremely funny", although expressing only a small amount of disapproval: "The effect, then, is of steady acceleration in the flow of the song, with King Iso, especially, delivering lines so fast that they pick up the staccato beat of a snare drum. The sudden switch to The Rock—rapping reasonably credibly, but not especially swiftly, and in a voice that can only be The Rock's — is a juxtaposition that cannot be properly handled by the human brain without a sudden snort of laughter." Dwayne Johnson's verse went viral on the video-sharing app

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

and was used in over 48,000 videos, including ''

Fortnite ''Fortnite'' is an online video game and game platform developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in seven distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: '' Fortnite Battle Roy ...

'' videos and shorts. It also sparked a wave of memes satirizing "extreme fitness" culture and "hustle culture". "Face Off" went to number one on the

US Top Tracks, number one on the

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

Top Hip-Hop/Rap Songs Chart and trended as the number one video on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

for three days.

Music video

The official music video was released alongside the single. It was co-directed by Cameron Logan Cox and Chris Stempel. The video begins with Dwayne Johnson conversing with Tech N9ne; the two declare that they are going to "give the people more." When Johnson raps, he is "looking fierce as always in a black tank top".

Charts

References

{{Dwayne Johnson 2021 singles 2021 songs Tech N9ne songs Dwayne Johnson Internet memes introduced in 2021 Posse cuts