Where Them Girls At

"Where Them Girls At" (originally titled "Where Dem Girls At?") is a song by French DJ and record producer David Guetta featuring American rapper Flo Rida and Trinidadian-born rapper Nicki Minaj. The track was released on 2 May 2011, via Virgin Records, serving as the lead single from Guetta's fifth studio album, Nothing but the Beat. The track was written by the artists alongside Jared Cotter, Play-N-Skillz, Giorgio Tuinfort, and Sandy Vee & Mike Caren, who produced the song with Guetta.
Initially, "Where Them Girls At" was recorded in 2010 and featured just Flo Rida, however after getting in touch with Minaj about a collaboration, Guetta played Minaj the record and she decided to record vocals for it. Computer hackers obtained an a cappella version of the song, and added their own production before leaking the song online. Guetta and his managing team subsequently mastered a proper version of the song, released it earlier than planned and called an employee of The Pentagon to investigate the matter. An accompanying music video for the song was filmed in Los Angeles in May 2011 and released on 28 June 2011. The song has been featured in Despicable Me 2.
Guetta first worked with Flo Rida in 2010, when the duo collaborated for Rida's album Only One Flo (Part 1) and the Step Up 3D soundtrack. The duo released "Club Can't Handle Me" in 2010 under the condition that Rida would collaborate on a song for Guetta's fifth album Nothing but the Beat. Guetta would later approach Nicki Minaj for a collaboration, and although Minaj wanted to appear solo on one of Guetta's records, agreed to appear on "Where Them Girls At" after hearing it for the first time.
"Where Them Girls At" was written by Michael Caren, Jared Cotter, Flo Rida, David Guetta, Nicki Minaj, Juan and Oscar Silinas, Giorgio Tuinfort and Sandy Vee. An early version of the song featuring a cappella vocals was obtained by computer hackers, through accessing Guetta's recording studio's Wi-Fi connection. The hackers subsequently added their own production to the track and falsely posted it online as a Guetta song. As a result of their action, Guetta then released the single earlier than planned, with no promotion. Additionally, they hired an investigator from The Pentagon to find the perpetrators.
In an interview with MTV News in March 2011, Guetta revealed he was debating between two tracks to release as the first single from his upcoming fifth studio album: a song with English singer-songwriter Taio Cruz and American rapper Ludacris entitled "Little Bad Girl" or the track with Rida and Minaj, then known as "Where Dem Girls At?" A music video for the song, set to feature "a positive message", was filmed in Los Angeles in May 2011. "Where Them Girls At" hit U.S. mainstream and rhythmic radio on 17 May 2011.
The main synth was based on Guetta's 2009 hit song "Sexy Bitch". The song uses open fifths instead of a chord sequence, with a sequence of C-Eb-Bb-Ab. The song is set in modern time with a moderately fast tempo of 130 beats per minute.
Lewis Corner from Digital Spy said "[the song] is a rambunctious mix of hard-hitting thuds and candy-coated synths over lyrics spouting the standard sexy laydee and partying clichés. Its centre, however, is a sweet 'n' gooey tongue-lashing from Minaj, who commands: 'Through the club all the girls in the back of me/ This ain't football why the fuck they tryna tackle me?', in her usual quick-witted, lickety-split manner." He awarded the song three out of five stars.
"Where Them Girls At" saw a top ten debut in New Zealand and a top twenty debut in Ireland and the Netherlands. In addition, the song debuted at number-one on both Belgian Ultratip charts & the official Scotland charts. On the UK Singles Chart, the song debuted at number three, giving Guetta his twelfth top twenty hit. In France, David Guetta's native country "Where Them Girls At" entered at number 8 in May 2011 and later reached number 4 in July 2011, become Minaj's first top five in the country and the first top five for a female non-French rapper.
In the United States, the song debuted at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, selling over 160,000 digital downloads in less than one week and giving Guetta his third top 20 hit in the US. As of December 2014, the song had sold over 1.6 million copies in the US. The song debuted at number three in Canada, becoming the highest debuting song that week on the Canadian Hot 100.
On 28 June 2011, the official music video for "Where Them Girls At" was released via Facebook on a fan page named "David Guetta Turkiye" and premiered on Guetta's YouTube and Vevo channels the same day. All three artists, David Guetta, Flo Rida, and Nicki Minaj, appear in the video. However, the vocalists only appear in each of their respective verses. The video shows giant bubbles which contain the song's beats, drifting across the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco. When people burst the bubbles, they start dancing uncontrollably. Flo Rida is seen rapping his verse in a poolside and Minaj is seen in an art gallery with two male models, Chadd Smith and Casper Smart of The LXD. Guetta is at a rooftop, table turning, and creating bubbles. Minaj inhales one of a bubble and starts singing to the beat of the music, while breathing out bubbles. The bubbles which Guetta produces, attract many people. especially women, to his party. In the video. David Guetta can be seen reading an Ice Watch wristwatch, using a Sony Ericsson Xperia Play smartphone to take a picture, and an animated billboard ad with a Renault Twizy Z.E. is also featured.
Minaj has performed her verses on select dates of her debut concert tour, the Pink Friday Tour.