Handstand (song)

"Handstand" is a hip hop track that spans for two minutes and fifty seconds.[1] It contains an interpolation of Big Pun's 2000 single "It's So Hard", which itself is based around a sample of Danny Rivera's "En Un Rincon Del Alma", thus giving Big Pun, Julian Garfield, and Younglord songwriting credit.[2][3] A "bouncy" track sees the performers indulging themselves for "freaky fun",[4] while Doja Cat raps "You need a project bitch, a hoodrat bitch / One don’t give a fuck / And said she took that dick".[5]

Uproxx writer Wongo Okon opined that "Handstand" is a "bright" moment within They Got Amnesia.[4] Robin Murray from Clash called the song "muscle-bound";[6] whereas Vivian Medithi of HipHopDX commented that the track is a "ready-made club jam for the ladies that seems destined for TikTok success", while Doja Cat "sound[s] perfectly at home".[7]

On November 8, 2021, French Montana shared track listing for his fourth studio album, They Got Amnesia, unvieling "Handstand" as its eight track.[8] The album was initially scheduled to be released on November 12, but was postponed for a week, hence "Handstand" music video was not finished. Four days later, French Montana previewed a snippet of Doja Cat's verse "Handstand" on Instagram.[2] The song ultimately was chosen as the fourth single promotiong the project.[9] Bad Boy Records and Epic Records issued the song to the US rhythmic contemporary radio format on November 23, 2021.[10] Next month, Sony Music sent the track to Italian radio airplay.[11] The single peaked at number 33 on the US R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart,[12] while in New Zealand, it entered Hot Singles chart at position 40.[13]

French Montana (right) and Doja Cat (left) in the music video. The latter is wearing machine gun bikini, which reminded Rolling Stone writer Brenna Ehrlich of the 1968 film Barbarella.[14]

The music video for "Handstand" was directed by Edgar Esteves and Jon Primo,[14] and recorded on November 9, 2021. Two days after recording, French Montana posted a video with Doja Cat from the set of the music video.[2] The clip premiered on the rapper's YouTube channel on December 8, 2021.[15] It was sponsored by Russian vodka brand Beluga and mobile shopping app NTWRK.[1]

The video is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where the rappers are fighting with armed people on the street.[15] They use baseball bats, laser eyes, while Doja Cat is wearing machine gun bikini.[14] During Saweetie's verse, she twerks over the burning city, whereas the cyborgs fight back against the protestors.[4][16] The clip ends with French Montana showing off his NFT.[4] The visual gained comparitions to such films as The Warriors (1979), The Terminator (1984), and Barbarella (1968) by Rolling Stone's Brenna Ehrlich,[14] Waterworld (1995) by Vulture's Bethy Squires,[1] Planet Terror (2007) by Uproxx's Wongo Okon, while both Okon and Rap-Up also noted similarities to Mad Max series.[4][5] Bethy Squires from Vulture wrote that "[o]ther iconic hip-hop videos have placed themselves in a Thunderdome-like future, (...) [b]ut none of these videos, stunning though they are, had the boldness of vision to imagine a world where the only connection to the civilization we once knew is sponcon."[1]