Suit & Tie

"Suit & Tie"
Single by Justin Timberlake featuring Jay-Z
from the album The 20/20 Experience
ReleasedJanuary 14, 2013 (2013-01-14)
RecordedJune 2012
StudioLarrabee (North Hollywood)
Genre
Length
  • 5:26 (album version)
  • 4:29 (radio edit)
LabelRCA
Songwriters
Producers
  • Timbaland
  • Justin Timberlake
  • Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon
Justin Timberlake singles chronology
"3-Way (The Golden Rule)"
(2011)
"Suit & Tie"
(2013)
"Mirrors"
(2013)
Jay-Z singles chronology
"Clique"
(2012)
"Suit & Tie"
(2013)
"Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe"
(2013)
Music video
"Suit & Tie" on YouTube

"Suit & Tie" is a song by American singer Justin Timberlake featuring rapper Jay-Z from the former's third studio album, The 20/20 Experience (2013). It was released by RCA Records as the lead single from the album on January 14, 2013. "Suit & Tie" was written and produced by Timberlake, Timbaland, and J-Roc, with additional writing from James Fauntleroy and Jay-Z. The track contains a portion of the 1972 song "Sho' Nuff" by Sly, Slick and Wicked, whose members are credited as co-writers as a result. It is a mid-tempo R&B and soul song that incorporates a "slow-drawl" comprising slowed-down synths and "slightly out of time" drum claps, similar to the chopped and screwed remixing style. Lyrically, it is an ode to the joys of "being handsome and well-dressed".

Upon release, "Suit & Tie" received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, with some praising both it and Timberlake for representing R&B in a way many contemporary songs could not. Commercially, it was a success, selling 315,000 first-week downloads in the US and surpassing the 250,000 debut of "SexyBack" in 2006, becoming Timberlake's highest sales week for a download at the time, until the release of "Can't Stop the Feeling!" in 2016. It peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also reached the top five in both the UK and Canada, peaking at number three in both regions. As of 2018, it had sold 3.3 million downloads in the US.

An accompanying music video for "Suit & Tie" was shot on January 25, 2013, and was directed by David Fincher, with whom Timberlake had previously worked on The Social Network. To promote it, Timberlake and Jay-Z performed "Suit & Tie" at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2013. They performed it again during Timberlake's hosting of Saturday Night Live on March 9, 2013. The music video was released on Timberlake's Vevo page on Valentine's Day 2013. It won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video and was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.