"Lighters" is a song by American hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, released from their first extended play (EP), Hell: The Sequel (2011). The track features American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars. It reached the top ten of several countries, including number two in New Zealand, number four in Canada and the United States, and number ten in Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It has been certified two times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and three times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).
The song is included on Eminem's second greatest hits album, Curtain Call 2 (2022).
Music video[]
Filming sessions for an accompanying music video for "Lighters" began on July 20, 2011, in Los Angeles, California. Directed by Rich Lee, the video was uploaded to VEVO on August 22, 2011.
The video begins with Mars singing while playing an upright piano. Eminem, who is laying on a couch in an untidy living room while wearing a white T-shirt and red baggy pants, subsequently picks up a notepad with lyrics and begins to rap his verse. He discovers a trap door on the floor and climbs down a ladder, and then finds himself in a utility tunnel with pipes, while red highway flares illuminate the setting. He lights a flare to navigates through a series of tunnels. While Mars sings the chorus once again in the same setting as shown in the beginning, Eminem continues to search through the tunnels.
Royce begins rapping in a prison cell, until he finds a poster and peels it off the wall to find a door compartment, a reference to 1994 drama film The Shawshank Redemption. He crawls through it and finds himself in the tunnel. Royce lights a flare to help navigate through the system. As Mars sings the bridge, the two rappers find their way out of the tunnels, through a manhole which leads them to a field where Mars sings. As the sun starts to set, couples, along with Bad Meets Evil, gather to see a large group of rising sky lanterns aglow. Beats by Dr. Dre headphones are advertised in the video and one couple gathers in front of a Chrysler 300. As the video reaches its conclusion, the setting gets dark and Mars sings the last lines.
| Video | Information | |
|---|---|---|
| Released | August 22, 2011 | |
| Director | Rich Lee | |
| Prod. Company | DNA, Inc. | |
| Length | 5:09 | |
Personnel[]
- Asar – recording
- Brian "Big Bass" Gardner – mastering
- Joe Strange – engineering assistance
- Luis Resto – additional keyboards
- Marshall "Eminem" Mathers III – lead vocals, writing, production, mixing
- Mike Strange – recording, mixing
- Roy Battle – writing, production, engineering
- Ryan "Royce da 5'9"" Montgomery – lead vocals, writing
- The Smeezingtons – production
- Ari Levine – writing, recording
- Peter "Bruno Mars" Hernandez – lead vocals, writing
- Philip Lawrence – writing
Lyrics[]
[Chorus: Bruno Mars]
This one's for you and me
Livin' out our dreams
We're all right where we should be
Lift my arms out wide, I open my eyes
And now all I wanna see
Is a sky full of lighters
A sky full of lighters
[Verse 1: Eminem]
By the time you hear this, I will have already spiralled up
I would never do nothin' to let you cowards fuck my world up
If I was you, I would duck, or get struck like lightnin'
Fighters keep fightin', put your lighters up, point 'em skyward, uh
Had a dream, I was king; I woke up, still king
This rap game's nipple is mine for the milking
'Til nobody else even fuckin' feels me, 'til it kills me
I swear to God I'll be the fuckin' illest in this music
There is, or there ever will be, disagree? Feel free
But from now on I'm refusing to ever give up
Only thing I ever gave up's using no more excuses
Excuse me if my head is too big for this building
And pardon me if I'm a cocky prick, but you cocks are slick
Poppin' shit on how you flipped your life around, crock of shit
Who you dicks tryna kid? Flip "dick," you did opposite
You stayed the same 'cause "cock" backwards is still "cock," you pricks!
I love it when I tell 'em shove it
'Cause it wasn't that long ago when Marshall sat flustered
Lacked luster 'cause he couldn't cut mustard
Muster up nothin', brain fuzzy
'Cause he's buzzin', woke up from that buzz and
Now you wonder why he does it how he does it
Wasn't 'cause he had buzzards
Circlin' around his head, waitin' for him to drop dead, was it?
Or was it 'cause some bitches wrote him off?
Little hussy-ass scuzzes
Fuck it, guess it doesn't matter now, does it?
What difference it make? What's it take?
To get it through your thick skulls that this ain't
Some bullshit; people don't usually come back this way
From a place that was dark as I was in just to get to this place
Now let these words be like a switchblade to a hater's ribcage!
And let it be known that from this day forward, I wanna just say
Thanks, 'cause your hate is what gave me the strength
So let them Bics raise, 'cause I came with 5'9", but I feel like I'm 6'8"
[Chorus: Bruno Mars]
This one's for you and me
Livin' out our dreams
We're all right where we should be
With my arms out wide, I open my eyes
And now all I wanna see
Is a sky full of lighters
A sky full of lighters
[Verse 2: Royce Da 5'9"]
By the time you hear this, I'll prolly already be outtie
I advance like goin' from totin' iron to goin' and buyin'
Four or five of the homies the Iron Man Audi
My daddy told me: "Slow down, boy, you're goin' to blow it!"
And I ain't gotta stop the beat a minute to tell Shady I love him
The same way that he did Dr. Dre on The Chronic
Tell him how real he is, or how high I am
Or how I would kill for him, for him to know it
I cried plenty tears, my daddy got a bad back
So it's only right that I write 'til he can march right
Into that post office and tell 'em to hang it up
Now his career's LeBron's Jersey in twenty years
I stop when I'm at the very top
You shitted on me on your way up, it's 'bout to be a scary drop
'Cause what goes up must come down
You goin' down on somethin' you don't wanna see, like a hairy box
Every hour, happy hour now, life is wacky now
Used to have to eat the cat to get the pussy
Now I'm just the cat's meow, oww, outclass the count
Always down for the catchweight like Pacquiao
Y'all are doomed
I remember when T-Pain ain't wanna work with me
My car starts itself, parks itself, and auto-tunes
'Cause now I'm in the Aston; I went from havin'
My city locked up to gettin' treated like Kwame Kilpatrick
And now I'm fantastic, compare it to a weed high
And y'all n****s that's gossipin' like bitches
On the radio and TV, see me, we fly
Y'all buggin' out like Wendy Williams starin' at a beehive
And how real is that? I remember signin' my first deal
Now I'm the second best, I can deal with that
Now Bruno can show his ass, without the MTV awards gag
[Bridge: Bruno Mars]
You and I know what it's like
To be kicked down, forced to fight
But tonight, we're all right
So hold up your lights
Let it shine, 'cause—
[Chorus: Bruno Mars]
This one's for you and me
Livin' out our dreams
We're all right where we should be
With my arms out wide, I open my eyes
And now all I wanna see
Is a sky full of lighters
A sky full of lighters
Charts[]
Weekly charts[]
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
 Australia (ARIA)
|
17 |
 Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)
|
41 |
 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)
|
23 |
| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)
|
32 |
 Canada (Canadian Hot 100)
|
4 |
| Canada CHR/Top 40 (Billboard)
|
2 |
| Canada Hot AC (Billboard)
|
28 |
 Denmark (Tracklisten)
|
18 |
 France (SNEP)
|
11 |
 Germany (GfK)
|
26 |
 Ireland (IRMA)
|
11 |
 Lebanon (Lebanese Top 20)
|
2 |
 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)
|
13 |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100)
|
17 |
 New Zealand (RMNZ)
|
2 |
 Norway (VG-lista)
|
8 |
 Scotland (OCC)
|
9 |
 South Korea International Chart (Gaon)
|
2 |
 Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)
|
18 |
 Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)
|
10 |
 UK Hip Hop/R&B (OCC)
|
3 |
| UK Singles (OCC)
|
10 |
 US Billboard Hot 100
|
4 |
| US Hot Latin Songs (Billboard)
|
22 |
| US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)
|
75 |
| US Hot Rap Songs (Billboard)
|
6 |
| US Pop Airplay (Billboard)
|
2 |
| US Rhythmic (Billboard)
|
1 |
Year-end charts[]
| Chart (2011) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)
|
68 |
 Brazil (Crowley)
|
30 |
| Canada (Canadian Hot 100)
|
40 |
| Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)
|
69 |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100)
|
85 |
| Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)
|
97 |
| Switzerland (Swiss Hitparade)
|
65 |
| UK Singles (OCC)
|
88 |
| US Billboard Hot 100
|
34 |
| US Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard)
|
22 |
| US Rhythmic (Billboard)
|
11 |
| Chart (2012) | Position |
| Brazil (Crowley)
|
44 |
Certifications[]
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| [[File:|20px|link=]] 3× Platinum | 210,000*** | |
| [[File:|20px|link=]] Gold | 30,000*** | |
| [[File:|20px|link=]] Gold | 45,000*** | |
| [[File:|20px|link=]] Platinum | 15,000* | |
| [[File:|20px|link=]] Platinum | 40,000*** | |
| [[File:|20px|link=]] Gold | 400,000*** | |
| [[File:|20px|link=]] 2× Platinum | 2,208,000 | |
|
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
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