page_title: '03 Bonnie & Clyde
section_title: Controversy
hierarchical_section_title: '03 Bonnie & Clyde / Controversy
caption_attribution_description: English: Toni Braxton at the The Heart Truth Red Dress Collection Fashion Show 2013.
context_page_description: "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" is a song recorded by American rapper Jay-Z featuring his then-girlfriend, American singer Beyoncé Knowles. It was composed by Shawn Carter, Kanye West, Prince Nelson, Tupac Shakur, Darryl Harper, Ricky Rouse and Tyrone Wrice for Jay-Z's seventh studio album The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse. The song was released as the album's lead single on October 10, 2002. A R&B song, "03' Bonnie & Clyde" sampled its beat from American rapper Tupac Shakur's 1996 song "Me and My Girlfriend", paraphrasing its chorus, and was inspired by the crime film Bonnie and Clyde. The instrumentation is based on programmed drums, bass instruments, and a flamenco guitar.
  "03' Bonnie & Clyde" was generally received with favorable reviews by music critics, who complimented the combination of Jay-Z's and Beyoncé's musical styles, their collaboration and the song's production. The single reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Jay-Z's second top ten single and Beyoncé's first as a solo artist. It charted at number two in the United Kingdom and peaked in the top twenty in other European territories.
context_section_description: On October 8, 2002, Toni Braxton and her team released a statement claiming that Jay-Z's song "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" had stolen Braxton's idea to sample the 1996 Tupac Shakur song "Me and My Girlfriend". Braxton sampled Shakur's song on the track "Me & My Boyfriend", included on Braxton's album, More Than a Woman (2002). In a call to a New York radio station, hosted by Wendy Williams, Braxton stated that "Jay-Z and Beyoncé are messing with my money. They're trying to steal my mojo". Braxton said her song was recorded over the summer of 2002, and alleged that Jay-Z only decided to do "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" after she played her version of the song for Def Jam Recordings.
  Kanye West responded to Braxton's claim in an interview for MTV News, "I had no idea about Toni Braxton's [song]. She can't act like ain't nobody ever heard 'Me and My Girlfriend' before. People hear the song all the time. I can [understand her complaint] if it [was] an original song." West defended the song's sample, stating that the idea came to him after listening to a friend's Makaveli album one night. Roc-A-Fella Records' Co-CEO responded to Braxton's claims:
  Jay is a talented dude. I don't think he would steal anything intentionally. It's an ill coincidence, and things happen for a reason. We'll see what happens behind it... I read it in the paper, and Jay and I were talking about it this morning and it was a little funny. I know he didn't intentionally make the same record she made. I don't think he even heard it. [My] reaction is, 'Sorry, it wasn't intentional.' Jay makes records and puts them out. This [sh--] is music. It's just music. We don't sit around and have a blueprint to [f---] anybody's life up. The music business has been good to us. I'm not getting into any beef or nothing over music.
  Speaking for MTV News, Jay-Z responded to Braxton's claims: "I wouldn't want to take it from her. I don't even think like that. My first thought would be, 'Maybe I could call her up, maybe I could get on that record.' The most obvious [explanation] is it's neither one of our records. It's not like you made an original idea. She's not in hip-hop, but it happens in hip-hop often. We go to sample the same thing and my record came out first. I'm sorry. What can I do?" He went on saying that if he had known they were both planning to sample the same Tupac song, he would have arranged a duet with her.
caption: Braxton (pictured) stated "I have kids to feed and this is taking money out of their college funds", due to Jay-Z's sample of "Me and My Girlfriend".[42]
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "3264", "Image ImageLength": "4896", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "FW13 NEW YORK FASHION WEEK", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS-1D Mark IV", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2013:02:08 06:13:28", "Image Artist": "DAN & CORINA LECCA", "Image WhitePoint": "[313/1000, 329/1000]", "Image PrimaryChromaticities": "[16/25, 33/100, 21/100, 71/100, 3/20, 3/50]", "Image YCbCrCoefficients": "[299/1000, 587/1000, 57/500]", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "\u00a9DAN & CORINA LECCA", "Image ExifOffset": "508", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1496", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5414", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1000", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:02:06 20:49:06", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:02:06 20:49:06", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "69/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "35/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "977/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "230", "EXIF SubSecTime": "03", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "03", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "03", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1957", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2434", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R03", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3264", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "4896", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1348", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "163200/43", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "816000/209", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "9925413204ddbcc91bf9470291967218", "EXIF Gamma": "11/5"}