911

The track was recorded just after September 11th 2001. This certainly influenced the lyrics, and certain of the rappers mention the events (and suspects behind) 9/11 in the song. However the lyrics are not very cohesive and aren’t really ‘about’ anything. The result sounds pretty impressive and the rapping is tight, but the overall message is just one of confusion. Terry Hall, of Specials fame, worked on this track too, having known Damon for a few years they’d always meant to collaborate together at some point. In some ways the result is almost a little too close to The Special’s materpiece ‘Ghost Town’. Not as quite as good as that epic by any stretch of the imagination, 911 is still a worthy track, even though not really a worthy comment on the tragedy of 9/11.

Official song credits

Written by Gorillaz and D-12(Von Carlisle, Ondre Moore, Denaun Porter, Rufus Johnson, De Shaun Holton)
Performed by Gorillaz and D-12(Von Carlisle, Ondre Moore, Denaun Porter, Rufus Johnson, De Shaun Holton) featuring Terry Hall
Produced by Gorillaz, Tom Girling and Jason Cox
Engineered by Tom Girling and Jason Cox
Pro-Tools by Tom Girling
Ude: Hassian

Versions & availibility

‘911’ [5:51] – formerly available as a download from the official Gorillaz site. Also on the 12 inch vinyl promo for this download-only release
‘911’ (clean version) [5:51]- available on the Bad Company OST

Live

Played live only once, as the last song of the encore at the New York Hammerstein Ballroom show in the US part of the Phase One tour. D-12 performed in front of the screen whilst the Gorillaz played behind the screen