"Strange Clouds" is a song by American rapper B.o.B featuring fellow American rapper

Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. He is often regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, as well as one of the greatest rappers of all ...

. Produced by Dr. Luke and Cirkut, the song was announced by

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

to be released on

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 ...

on September 27, 2011, Wayne's 29th birthday. The song serves as the lead single from B.o.B's second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

of the same name. In its first week, it sold 197,000 digital copies, debuting at number seven on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The song has sold over 1.3 million digital copies worldwide.

Background

Before the song's release B.o.B. performed the song at

concert A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...

on three occasions. He debuted the song at

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

in late August 2011, then performed the track again in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

on September 13, 2011, and on September 20, 2011, at Tennessee Tech University. On September 23, 2011, B.o.B released a trailer through his official website, depicting him in the studio playing the song. The song was written by Bobby Ray Simmons Jr., Dwayne Carter, Lukasz Gottwald and Henry Walter and was produced by Dr. Luke and Cirkut. It contains elements of

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

and electro-hop. The official cover art for the single was released on September 26, 2011, on B.o.B's official website. The cover depicts an open grassy landscape on the bottom portion of the cover and a large open sky with a central mystical entity that resembles a

nebula A nebula (; or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral, or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regions, such as in the Pillars of Creation in ...

centered in the sky above. B.o.B included the song on his eighth

mixtape In the modern music industry, a mixtape is a musical project, typically with looser constraints than that of an album or extended play. Unlike the traditional album or extended play, mixtapes are labeled as laid-back projects that allow artists mo ...

, ''E.P.I.C (Every Play Is Crucial)''.

Music video

The song's official music video premiered on B.o.B's YouTube channel in December 2011. The video features both rappers performing the song in a grassy forested area, as various people look in trepidation at the sight of massive "strange clouds" forming in the sky. Grand Hustle Records label boss T.I. makes a

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

, along with rapper

2 Chainz Tauheed K. Epps (born September 12, 1977), known professionally as 2 Chainz (formerly Tity Boi), is an American rapper and actor. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, he gained recognition as one-half of the Southern hip-hop duo Playaz Ci ...

Critical reception

Caryn Ganz of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' gave the song three out of five stars, saying that "Wayne drops a wink-nudge verse about getting blitzed, but it’s B.o.B who lights up with a charming, tenacious flow."

Remix

The official

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

to "Strange Clouds" was released 12 January 2012 and features fellow Atlanta rappers T.I. and

Young Jeezy Jay Wayne Jenkins (born September 28, 1977), known by his stage name Jeezy (or Young Jeezy), is an American rapper. He is credited, alongside fellow Georgia-based rappers T.I. and Gucci Mane, with pioneering the hip hop subgenre trap music fo ...

. The remix maintains the original production from Dr. Luke, however B.o.B performs a new verse and a slightly modified chorus. It was mentioned on February 6, 2012, 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 ...

through his official blog and a tweet reply to a fan on his

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account, that he was originally included in the remix. It was later confirmed on April 5, 2012, by B.o.B through a tweet reply to a fan on his Twitter account.

Remix video

The official music video for the remix to "Strange Clouds" was released on February 1, 2012. The video, directed by 1st Impressions, premiered on B.o.B's

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 ...

page on January 31, 2012.

Chart performance

On the week of October 10, 2011 the song debuted at number seven on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 making it the "Hot Shot Debut" of the week. In the first week of the song's release it sold 197,000 digital copies debuting at number three on the U.S.

Hot Digital Songs The Digital Song Sales (previously named Digital Songs and Hot Digital Songs) ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Luminate and published by ''Billboard'' magazine. Although it originally started tracking so ...

. "Strange Clouds" marks B.O.B's best debut sales week for a single, previously held by the 137,000 launch of " Airplanes" on May 1, 2010. As of February 9, 2012, "Strange Clouds" has been certified 2× platinum by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2011 songs 2011 singles B.o.B songs Songs written by Lil Wayne Songs written by B.o.B Lil Wayne songs Songs about cannabis Song recordings produced by Dr. Luke Songs written by Dr. Luke Grand Hustle Records singles Atlantic Records singles Song recordings produced by Cirkut Dubstep songs