It's Goin' Down

Template:Infobox single "It's Goin' Down" is a song written by Mike Shinoda and Joseph Hahn in collaboration with the X-Ecutioners and was released as a single in March 2002, doing fairly well on the worldwide charts. Lisa Worden, music director for Los Angeles' influential modern-rock station KROQ, said at the time: "The X-Ecutioners song 'It's Going Down' has been huge on the phones for us. It sounds amazing on the air and has been instantly reactive."

"It's Goin' Down" was included on the group's second studio album, entitled Built From Scratch, which came out on January 29, 2002. Mike, Roc Raida and Sean C co-produced the song. Roc Raida and Sean C would later work on "X-Ecutioner Style" for Reanimation.

Background

Mike Shinoda first announced the collaboration on a message sent to the Linkin Park Street Team on July 3, 2001: "one thing a lot of people ask is "when is new music coming out?" we will probably be out supporting this album on tour well into next year...but there are a number of things that will be coming out. the first things that you can look for will be appearing in the next few months. firstly, chester did a song with a band called cyclefly, so look for that. secondly, joe and i did a song with a dj crew called the xecutioners, which is due out on loud records in august. their album is called "built from scratch" and the song will be called "it's going down". it's mostly a hip hop track. i hope you guys hear the songs and enjoy them." The album however was delayed and only came out on January 29, 2002.

In a July 2, 2004 interview with The Times-Picayune, Rob Swift explained how the collaboration came about: "During the recording of "Built From Scratch," a Loud executive brought a copy of Linkin Park's "Hybrid Theory" to the studio, hoping to spark a collaboration. We stopped the session and sat there and played songs from the album and pretty much fell in love with everything we heard. We knew that we wanted to work with them. That same night, I called (Linkin Park vocalist/rapper) Mike Shinoda. The first thing he said was, 'Wow, the legend Rob Swift on the phone.' It let me know that he was a fan of us. Once I got on the phone with him, I knew that (the collaboration) was going to take place."

Mike wasn't the only X-Ecutioners fan on Linkin Park. Mr. Hahn told E!: "They are pioneers of deejaying. As turntabling developed, they were one of the original crews to come up [from the underground]. It's a great honor to work with them because I respect them so much."

Linkin Park had a rigorous road schedule and were unable to commit to a block of studio time. So, the X-Ecutioners got the wheels spinning by assembling a DAT of different beats and scratches and sending it to Linkin Park, who recorded their passages onto the disc and sent it back. This back-and-forth process continued for a few volleys before both parties were happy with the results. Then all the musicians hooked up in the studio to put the final touches on the song.

"It's Goin' Down" samples "Step Up" (off of the Hybrid Theory EP) and "Dedicated" (off of the LP Underground 2.0) by Linkin Park and "Year 2000" by Xzibit. Because of this, Xzibit and Mel-Man were credited as writers of the song. "Watch them flee/Hip hop heads" comes from "Dedicated", and the "You do it like this" sample is from "Step Up". Part of the main guitar riff is sampled from "Crawling" as well.

Despite the success of the single and the album, Rob Swift said in the 2012 book "Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ" that: "My role on that song was just more of a supporting role. We'd show up at places and it would be like, 'Yo, is Mike Shinoda here? Are you going to perform 'It's Goin' Down?' And after, like, hearing that a thousand times we tried to figure out ways to perform 'It's Goin' Down' without Mike Shinoda and that didn't work. It never worked. The album revolved more around who we collaborated with and it didn't really shine a light on us artistically."

On June 29, 2015 at the first Fort Minor comeback show, Mike referred to the song as essentially a Fort Minor track "before the name existed", giving reason to why Fort Minor has played the song at every show.

Tracklist

CD Single

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	It's Goin' Down - Featuring Mike Shinoda and Mr. Hahn of Linkin Park	Shinoda Mike, Hahn Joseph, Williams Anthony, Bailey Keith, Aguilar Rob, Jones Melvin, Joiner Alvin, Bradford Charles Melvin	4:08
2	X-Ecution Of A Bum Rush - Featuring The Beat Junkies (Babu and J-Rocc)	R. Aguilar, J.J. Jackson, A. Williams, J.J. Wright	2:58
3	Play That Beat / Lo-Fidelity All Stars Remix	H. McGuire, J. Miller	4:22

Vinyl Single

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	It's Goin' Down	Shinoda Mike, Hahn Joseph, Williams Anthony, Bailey Keith, Aguilar Rob, Jones Melvin, Joiner Alvin, Bradford Charles Melvin	4:12
2	It's Goin' Down (Instrumental)	Shinoda, Hahn, Williams, Bailey, Aguilar, Jones, Joiner, Bradford	4:14
3	X-Ecutioners (Theme) Song - Featuring Dan The Automater	R. Aguilar, Daniel M. Nakamura	4:22
4	It's Goin' Down (Scratchapella)	Shinoda, Hahn, Williams, Bailey, Aguilar, Jones, Joiner, Bradford	2:15

Music Video

In the music video X-Ecutioners, Mike Shinoda and Joe Hahn can be seen playing with Rob Bourdon on drums, Phoenix on bass, and Wayne Static from Static-X on guitar, even though none of the three are featured in the actual song. Other cameo appearances in the video include Chester Bennington and Brad Delson, members of Adema, Xzibit, hed (p.e.), the Liks, and the Beat Junkies and some professional skateboarders.

The video was directed by Mr. Hahn and was shot at the Park Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, the same place where Guns N' Roses shot "Welcome To The Jungle". It was debuted on Total Request Live in February 2002 and became an MTV staple at the time. Vance Burberry, who had previously worked on the "In The End" video, was director of photography.

Rob Swift spoke to MTV about the video in February 2002: "They had just dropped their album and were still trying to get known. We heard the record and fell in love with every song on it. We were like, ‘Yo, Linkin Park is capturing the same energy that we want to capture in our music, so why don’t we try to collaborate?’ In the end, it sounded like we were together every step of the way. I think that’s what happens with good musicians. You don’t have to be there present in order to get across what you want. Mike [Shinoda] is kind of ignoring us at first [in the video], but once we start scratching, he sees that we’re talented as well, and what we do on the turntables and how we express ourselves could only add to and intensify their music. What it’s really about is bridging the world of DJing and scratching with the world of rock. Bridging the turntable with the guitar and the vocals with what we’re doing on turntables and making it real. With a lot of videos you see girls with bikinis and cars. With this, it was just us being ourselves. The way you see us in the video is the way you see us every day."

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Studio

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
It's Goin' Down (featuring Mike Shinoda and Mr. Hahn of Linkin Park)	Built From Scratch Kerrang! 4: The Album	4:08	2001	January 29, 2002
It's Goin' Down	It's Goin' Down (Promo)	4:04	2001	2002	Album version without the guitar feedback at the beginning.
It's Goin' Down (Radio Edit)	It's Goin' Down	3:45	2001	March 15, 2002
It's Goin' Down (Radio Edit)	It's Goin' Down (AU Single)	3:37	2001	March 15, 2002	Lacks the guitar feedback at the beginning.
It's Goin' Down		3:49	2001		Music video version. Similar to the first radio edit, except this version has one extra repeat of the main riff at the end of the song.
It's Goin' Down		3:33	2001	2001	Demo version. Lacks the "Put it out for the world to see..." chorus. Samples Bruce Lee's Game Of Death at the beginning. According to pushmeaway.com (the first fan site to obtain this version), this track is taken from a Loud Records promo CD. A 2 minute and 7 seconds snippet can be found on the The Foundation...The Future. Fall 2001 Sampler CD. The exact source of the full version is currently unknown.
It's Goin' Down (feat. Linkin Park)	Built From Scratch (Advance CD)	3:33	2001	2001	Essentially the same thing as the demo version, except during the breakdown there is a voiceover saying "Yo, it's request only, X-Ecutioners Built From Scratch, album in stores soon."
It's Goin' Down (Instrumental)	It's Goin' Down (Vinyl)	4:08	2001	March 15, 2002
It's Goin' Down (Scratchapella)	It's Goin' Down (Vinyl)	2:13	2001	March 15, 2002	All the scratching and various samples found in the song without any other music.

Live

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Step Up/Nobody's Listening/It's Goin' Down (Live)	LP Underground 4.0	4:57	July 18, 2004	November 22, 2004	Recorded in the summer of 2004.
It's Goin' Down	Collision Course		July 18, 2004	November 30, 2004	MTV Ultimate Mash-Ups. DVD only. Incomplete (shortened) "It's Goin' Down" portion of "Step Up/Nobody's Listening/It's Goin' Down".

Live

Linkin Park

Despite the X-Ecutioners opening Linkin Park's Countdown To Revolution tour in fall 2001 and even though "It's Goin' Down" had already been recorded, the song was not performed on the tour.

"It's Goin' Down" was debuted live on February 7th, 2002, on the seventh show of Projekt Revolution 2002 in Wilkes-Barre, PA. There are LPU video episodes from the time period that show the band discussing them rehearsing the song before the first six shows of the tour. When it was added to the setlist, it took the spot of "And One" (from the Hybrid Theory EP), which hasn't been played again to this day.

During a linkinpark.com chat on July 29, 2002, Rob Bourdon said: "We didn't play High Voltage on Project Revolution because we didn't fit into the set as well as some other songs. We replaced it with It's Goin Down, becuase we had some other artists on the tour that were perfect to help us out with that."

The live debut of the song featured Z-Trip, who went on to join the band for most of the performances of the song during the tour. On February 8th, 2002 in Uniondale, NY, Z-Trip and Riff Raff joined the band for that performance as the X-Ecutioners (who were from New York) couldn't make it to the show. Coming in at almost four minutes long, the track was extended a bit to feature additional scratching on it.

After being absent in all of 2003 from setlists, the song came back on the Meteora World Tour in North America in January 2004, being performed at every show of the tour. Mike performed an acapella intro to the track. In the summer, Linkin Park decided to mash up "Step Up", "Nobody's Listening", and "It's Goin' Down" to form what fans called the "Hip Hop Medley". On August 30th, 2004, Snoop Dogg came out on a scooter onstage and rapped a verse from "Gin And Juice" over an extended ending of the track.

Brad's phrasing on the main "It's Goin' Down" riff when Linkin Park plays it live is totally different from how it appears on the studio version.

Mike would rap the first verse of "It's Goin' Down" over the intro of "Points Of Authority" and the outro of "Castle Of Glass" sporadically during the Minutes To Midnight and One More Light touring cycles, respectively.

In 2005, Mike played "It's Goin' Down" with Fort Minor at their very first show in Belgium and it has been played at every FM show since, surviving even the 2006-2015 hiatus of Fort Minor.

Mike performed verse one and part of verse two over the extended intro of "Kenji" during his Post Traumatic Tour stop in Beijing, China. On the tour, Mike would usually rap a verse of "Hands Held High" during that part of the set, but as the song was banned because of strict Chinese censorship, Mike played with a few verses while in China. Only part of verse two was performed because the crowd's clapping made Mike laugh and trip up.

X-Ecutioners

Rob Swift has said the X-Ecutioners tried to figure out ways of playing the song live but it never worked. Their only known performance of "It's Goin' Down" happened on May 16th, 2002, when Biohazard and Xzibit appeared on CBS' The Late Show With David Letterman as special guests of the X-Ecutioners for a performance of the song.

Variations

Last Updated: May 2, 2016

Type	Description	First Played	Last Played
Alternative	Hip-Hop Medley (Step Up/Nobody's Listening/It's Goin' Down)	June 3, 2004	September 11, 2004

Personnel

• Mike Shinoda: vocals, guitar
• Mr. Hahn, Rob Swift, Roc Raida, Total Eclipse, Mista Sinista: scratching

Production

• Mike Shinoda, Joe Hahn, Anthony Williams (Roc Raida), Keith Bailey (DJ Total Eclipse), Rob Aguilar (Rob Swift), Melvin Jones, Alvin Joiner, Melvin Charles Bradford (Mel-Man): writing
• Mike Shinoda: production
• Roc Raida, Sean Cane: co-production
• Leon Zervos: mastering
• Peter Kang, Sean Cane, X-Ecutioners: executive production
• Michael Patterson, J.D. Andrew: mixing

Lyrics

Watch them flee
Watch them flee
Watch them flee
Hip hop hits
And you do like this

It's going down
It's going down
It's going down
It's going down
It's going down
It's going down
It's going down

It's going down
The rhythm projects round my next sound
Reflects the complex hybrid dialect now
Detect the mesh of many elements compressed down
The melting pot of a super futuresque style
The combination of a vocal caress
With lungs that gasp for breath
From emotional stress
And special effects
In a distorted collage
Carefully lodged between beats of rhythmic barrage

It's going down
The logical progression on the timeline
The separation narrowed down to a fine line
To blur the edges so they blend together properly
Take you on an audible odyssey now
It's going down
The logical progression on the timeline
The separation narrowed down to a fine line
To blur the edges so they blend together properly
Take you on an audible odyssey now
It's going down
Put it out for the world to see
LP and X-Men to the 10th degree
It's going down
Nobody in the world is safe
When we melt down the wax in your record crate
It's going down
Put it out for the world to see
LP and X-Men to the 10th degree
It's going down
Nobody in the world is safe
When we melt down the wax in your record crate

It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this

It's going down
Once again it is
Composed sentences all together venomous
The four elements of natural force
Projected daily through the sound of the source
Everybody on board as we blend
The sword with the pen
The mightiest of the weapons
Swinging right for the chin
To elevate mental states
Long gone with the wind
To defend men from shoddy imitation pretends
It's going down
Style assimilation readily
Trekking through the weaponry
Of a pure pedigree
Cleverly seeing through whatever is ahead of me
Whatever the weather be
We advancing steadily
It's going down sub-terrestrial high
A rhyme regiment is calling the shots
Execution of collaborative plots
Ready to bring the separation of style to a stop

It's going down
A logical progression on a the timeline
The separation narrowed down to a fine line
To blur the edges so they blend together properly
Take you on an audible odyssey now
It's going down
Put it out for the world to see
LP and X-Men to the 10th degree
It's going down
Nobody in the world is safe
When we melt down the wax in your record crate
It's going down
Put it out for the world to see
LP and X-Men to the 10th degree
It's going down
Nobody in the world is safe
When we melt down the wax in your record crate

X-Men bout to blast off world wide
X-Men bout to blast off world wide
And you do it like this
Bout to blast off world wide

It's going down
Put it out for the world to see
LP and X-Men to the 10th degree
It's going down
Nobody in the world is safe
When we melt down the wax in your record crate
It's going down
Put it out for the world to see
LP and X-Men to the 10th degree
It's going down
Nobody in the world is safe
When we melt down the wax in your record crate

It's going down
It's going down
It's going down
It's going down
It's going down
It's going down
It's going down

It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
It's going down
And you do it like this
It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
It's going down
And you do it like this

Like this
Like this
Like this
Like this
Like this
Like this
Like this

Watch them flee
Watch them flee
Watch them flee
Hip hop hits
And you do like this

It's going down
It's going down
It's going down
It's going down
It's going down
It's going down
It's going down

It's going down
The rhythm projects round my next sound
Reflects the complex hybrid dialect now
Detect the mesh of many elements compressed down
The melting pot of a super futuresque style
The combination of a vocal caress
With lungs that gasp for breath
From emotional stress
And special effects
In a distorted collage
Carefully lodged between beats of rhythmic barrage

It's going down
The logical progression on the timeline
The separation narrowed down to a fine line
To blur the edges so they blend together properly
Take you on an audible odyssey now
It's going down
Put it out for the world to see
LP and X-Men to the 10th degree
It's going down
Nobody in the world is safe
When we melt down the wax in your record crate
It's going down
Put it out for the world to see
LP and X-Men to the 10th degree
It's going down
Nobody in the world is safe
When we melt down the wax in your record crate

It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this

It's going down
Once again it is
Composed sentences all together venomous
The four elements of natural force
Projected daily through the sound of the source
Everybody on board as we blend
The sword with the pen
The mightiest of the weapons
Swinging right for the chin
To elevate mental states
Long gone with the wind
To defend men from shoddy imitation pretends
It's going down
Style assimilation readily
Trekking through the weaponry
Of a pure pedigree
Cleverly seeing through whatever is ahead of me
Whatever the weather be
We advancing steadily
It's going down sub-terrestrial high
A rhyme regiment is calling the shots
Execution of collaborative plots
Ready to bring the separation of style to a stop

It's going down
A logical progression on a the timeline
The separation narrowed down to a fine line
To blur the edges so they blend together properly
Take you on an audible odyssey now
It's going down
Put it out for the world to see
LP and X-Men to the 10th degree
It's going down
Nobody in the world is safe
When we melt down the wax in your record crate
It's going down
Put it out for the world to see
LP and X-Men to the 10th degree
It's going down
Nobody in the world is safe
When we melt down the wax in your record crate

X-Men bout to blast off world wide
X-Men bout to blast off world wide
And you do it like this
Bout to blast off world wide

It's going down
Put it out for the world to see
LP and X-Men to the 10th degree
It's going down
Nobody in the world is safe
When we melt down the wax in your record crate
It's going down
Put it out for the world to see
LP and X-Men to the 10th degree
It's going down
Nobody in the world is safe
When we melt down the wax in your record crate

It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
It's going down
And you do it like this
It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
It's going down
And you do it like this

Like this
Like this
Like this

I knew I was being threatened
Do you think it's worth holding out?
I mean I've heard some pretty ugly things about those guys
Ugly stories

Watch them flee
Watch them flee
Rap Up
Watch them flee
Hip hop hits
And you do like this

It's going down
The rhythm projects round my next sound
Reflects the complex hybrid dialect now
Detect the mesh of many elements compressed down
The melting pot of a super futuresque style
The combination of a vocal caress
With lungs that gasp for breath
From emotional stress
And special effects
In a distorted collage
Carefully lodged between beats of rhythmic barrage

It's going down
The logical progression on the timeline
The separation narrowed down to a fine line
To blur the edges so they blend together properly
Take you on an audible odyssey now
It's going down
The logical progression on the timeline
The separation narrowed down to a fine line
To blur the edges so they blend together properly
Take you on an audible odyssey now

It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this
It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this

It's going down
Once again it is
Composed sentences all together venomous
The four elements of natural force
Projected daily through the sound of the source
Everybody on board as we blend
The sword with the pen
The mightiest of the weapons
Swinging right for the chin
To elevate mental states
Long gone with the wind
To defend men from shoddy imitation pretends
It's going down
Style assimilation readily
Trekking through the weaponry
Of a pure pedigree
Cleverly seeing through whatever is ahead of me
Whatever the weather be
We advancing steadily
It's going down sub-terrestrial high
A rhyme regiment is calling the shots
Execution of collaborative plots
Ready to bring the separation of style to a stop

It's going down
A logical progression on a the timeline
The separation narrowed down to a fine line
To blur the edges so they blend together properly
Take you on an audible odyssey now

It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this
It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this

It's going down
X-Men bout to blast off world wide
Yo it's request only
X-Men bout to blast off world wide
It's built from scratch
Album in stores soon
And you do it like this
Bout to blast off world wide
And you do it like this

It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this
It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this

It's going down

Like this
Like this
Like this
Like this
Like this
Like this
Like this

I knew I was being threatened
Do you think it's worth holding out?
I mean I've heard some pretty ugly things about those guys
Ugly stories

Watch them flee
Watch them flee
Rap Up
Watch them flee
Hip hop hits
And you do like this

It's going down
The rhythm projects round my next sound
Reflects the complex hybrid dialect now
Detect the mesh of many elements compressed down
The melting pot of a super futuresque style
The combination of a vocal caress
With lungs that gasp for breath
From emotional stress
And special effects
In a distorted collage
Carefully lodged between beats of rhythmic barrage

It's going down
The logical progression on the timeline
The separation narrowed down to a fine line
To blur the edges so they blend together properly
Take you on an audible odyssey now
It's going down
The logical progression on the timeline
The separation narrowed down to a fine line
To blur the edges so they blend together properly
Take you on an audible odyssey now

It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this
It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this

It's going down
Once again it is
Composed sentences all together venomous
The four elements of natural force
Projected daily through the sound of the source
Everybody on board as we blend
The sword with the pen
The mightiest of the weapons
Swinging right for the chin
To elevate mental states
Long gone with the wind
To defend men from shoddy imitation pretends
It's going down
Style assimilation readily
Trekking through the weaponry
Of a pure pedigree
Cleverly seeing through whatever is ahead of me
Whatever the weather be
We advancing steadily
It's going down sub-terrestrial high
A rhyme regiment is calling the shots
Execution of collaborative plots
Ready to bring the separation of style to a stop

It's going down
A logical progression on a the timeline
The separation narrowed down to a fine line
To blur the edges so they blend together properly
Take you on an audible odyssey now

It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this
It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this

It's going down
X-Men bout to blast off world wide
X-Men bout to blast off world wide
And you do it like this
Bout to blast off world wide
And you do it like this

It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this
It's going down
Put it up
And it goes like this
And you do it like this

It's going down

Like this
Like this
Like this
Like this
Like this
Like this
Like this

Gallery

• 

  Single

• 

  Built From Scratch with Parental Advisory label

• 

  Built From Scratch Non-PA

• 

  Built From Scratch promo

• 

  Loud 2001 Sampler

• 

  The Foundation...The Future. Fall 2001 Sampler

• 

  Kerrang! 4: The Album

• 

  Linkin Park and X-Ecutioners at MTV Video Music Awards 2001

In Other Media

• "It's Goin' Down" is featured in the 15th episode of Season 5 of the TV series The Challenge, titled "Siamese Wrestling".

External Links

• Xzibit, X-Ecutioners, Biohazard rehearsal for David Letterman