Dope (Lady Gaga song)

After Gaga suffered a labral tear of her right hip in February 2013 during her Born This Way Ball tour, which she had embarked to promote her second studio album, Born This Way (2011), she cancelled the remainder of the tour and underwent surgery. She subsequently had to be on rest for the next six months. The singer later told Attitude magazine that she had a serious marijuana addiction during that time in order to bear the pain of the surgery. "I would break the habit and it would sneak back in, and I would break it and sneak back in," Gaga confessed, adding that her life had become a smoke-filled cycle: sleep, sing, smoke. Having cancelled the tour and taken a sabbatical, Gaga started working on the songs for Artpop. "I was just numbing, numbing, numbing myself then sleeping it off, then getting on stage, killing it in pain, then getting off and smoking, smoking, smoking, not knowing what pain was. Fuck, if I know what hurts the most, you know? I would break the habit and it would sneak back in and I would break it and sneak back in." :—Gaga talking about her addiction to drugs. One of the songs, known as "I Wanna Be with You", was performed as an acoustic version on the festival; Gaga called it an ode to her fans and about how much she had missed them while recuperating from the surgery. Dope' is actually about me battling all sorts of addiction since I was growing up", she explained to the interviewers. ==Recording and composition==

"Dope" was recorded at Shangri-La Studios, Malibu, California, by Jason Lader, Ryan Hewitt and Sean Oakley, with Lader also working on the digital editing of the song and playing keyboards for it. It is composed in the key of E major with Gaga's vocals spanning the tonal nodes of D3 to E5. The chorus of the song follows a basic sequence of E–B–Cm–A as its chord progression. ==Release and artwork==

Gaga had posted two handwritten notes of the lyrics to "Dope" on social media site Instagram. The verses, then believed to be from the song, included references to drug intake with lines such as "Been hurtin' low from living high, Toast one last puff and two last regrets" and "each day I cry, I feel so low, from living high", along with the hashtag #DOPE. The images raised concern from Instagram who felt that Gaga needed help and decided to reach out to her. They mailed the singer with the following message: "Hi, Members of the Instagram community have raised concern for your well-being after seeing posts you've shared. We're reaching out to provide you with some important safety information." Gaga mockingly responded to the letter and was dismissive of their concern; she posted on her Twitter account about the mail from the social media. Following the release of the full track list for Artpop, Gaga posted an image of herself on Instagram, wearing a snapback hat, emblazoned with the NASA "meatball" insignia, but replacing the word NASA with DOPE, referring to the design label with the same name. On October 31, 2013, Gaga revealed via Twitter that "Dope" would be the final song available for purchase before the release of Artpop, accessible for digital download from November 4. The single's cover art was also revealed, depicting Gaga wearing a black floppy hat with her brunette hair falling over her shoulders, an oversized "boxy" double-breasted blazer, sheer underwear, one black leather boot and a grill that made her teeth appear larger. Her eyes are covered by a scarf and she has bruises on her belly and around her crotch area. Idolator writer Mike Wass named the cover art "a cross between Frankenstein and Michael Jackson". Matthew Jacobs from The Huffington Post found the cover relatively modest compared to the previous single covers of songs from Artpop. Lily Harrison from E! Online complimented Gaga for taking the fashion of grills to a "whole new level". She commended the singer's ability to portray her toned figure in spite of the "odd ensemble". ==Critical reception==

Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine was initially dismissive of the version performed at the iTunes Festival due to its "bland" arrangement and "elementary" melody, but reacted well to the new version on Artpop, saying: "Gaga has been very public about her supposed battle with addiction, and whether or not it's just another costume for the singer to wear, she's nonetheless composed a convincing anthem of remorse." Idolator reviewer Christina Lee believed that with "Dope", Gaga had found another novel way of stripping herself down in the song, and complimented the singer's vocals in the song. Michael Cragg from The Guardian, who was granted an early listen to Artpop, felt that the song was an emotional highlight of the album, denoting it as the record's "one real moment of calm" and "the album's most tender moment". However, Cragg was skeptical about the line "I need you more than dope", feeling it to be a less impressive comparison. Jon Pareles from The New York Times found "Dope" to be similar to piano ballads by singer Elton John. Georgina Littlejohn from Entertainmentwise called the track "a passionate love song that proves that Gaga is as much a songwriter as an entertainer." Alex Young from Consequence of Sound praised Gaga's vocals and deemed the track "easily the best track to surface from Artpop thus far". Jason Lipshutz from Billboard called the song a "Broadway show-stopper", adding that Gaga's broken vocals are brilliant and bruising. Jim Farber from New York Daily News felt the song expressed "great need in the lyrics while displaying only bravado in her delivery." Bradley Stern from MuuMuse found the "wailing piano ballad" to be among the weakest tracks from Artpop. Kory Grow of Rolling Stone felt that the emotional high point of "Dope" is its chorus, and is a turning point for the song. While reviewing Artpop, Jerry Shriver from USA Today commented that amongst the loud music of the other songs, "Dope" sounded like "too much of a slog" to provide any change of pace while listening to the record. Leila Brilson from Refinery29 felt that with "Dope" Gaga allowed her "operatic voice" to soar; the song itself is a heart-aching ballad and an unforgettable moment on Artpop. This view was shared by Spencer Kornhaber from The Atlantic who added that the song was "a histrionic piano ballad". London Evening Standards John Aizlewood criticized the song's lyrics for being submissive, instead of Gaga's empowerment themes. Another negative review came from Chris Bosman from Time, saying that although "Dope" was the most "streamlined" release of Gaga's discography, "the effect would be more powerful if 'Dope' didn't hit every excruciating piano ballad cliché (and feature the hilariously clunky line 'I need you more than dope')." ==Commercial performance==

"Dope" debuted at number 60 on the US Hot Digital Songs chart with 31,000 downloads for the issue dated November 23, 2013. The song also debuted at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the singer's 13th top ten on the chart, as well as her highest charting promotional single to date. The low sales of "Dope" were due to iTunes Store's "Complete My Album" program, where the customers have the option of buying the full album and hence earlier song purchases are deducted from the song's current week's total. Despite the low sales, the high debut was fueled by the heavy streams of the song of about 8.2 million, and a number one entry on the Billboard Streaming Songs chart, which is one of the components of the Hot 100. "Dope" debuted at number 34 on the Australian Singles Chart for the issue dated November 9, 2013. It has sold 10,218 digital downloads in South Korea, as reported by Gaon. "Dope"s highest position was attained in Hungary and Spain, where it reached the top of the charts. It also attained top-ten positions in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy and Luxembourg. ==Live performances==

Gaga performed the song at the 2013 YouTube Music Awards on November 3, 2013. She arrived on the red carpet of the event wearing the same pair of rotten, yellow teeth she wore on the cover art. John Walker from MTV News analyzed Gaga's look to be a combination of the snake from Tim Burton's 1988 fantasy film, Beetlejuice, the Scarecrow character from DC Comics and the rocker Marilyn Manson. During the performance, the singer wore a flannel shirt, her natural hair and a snapback with the NASA symbol altered to read DOPE and her face was devoid of any make-up. She performed a piano only version of "Dope", without any other instrumentation and with tears falling down her face. Gaga exited the stage while shaking hands and hugging the members of the audience. Jon Caramanica from The New York Times complimented Gaga's "easiest-to-consume" performance for being "taut and focused" without any error in its execution. A review in Spin called it one of the most bare performances of the show. Conversely, Jason Lipshutz from Billboard was critical of the performance, feeling that it "failed to be the emotional stunner it desperately deserved to be". He believed that although directors Spike Jonze and Chris Milk kept the focus on Gaga's tear-stricken face to give it an intimate feel, the screaming of the audience ruined the performance. In November 2013, Gaga hosted a two-day event called ArtRave, which served as the launch party of Artpop, and performed "Dope" on the piano. Before the performance, she gave a speech about her own experiences with drugs and alcohol, and how she came over addiction. Days later, Gaga appeared on The Howard Stern Show and performed another piano-only version of the song. On December 6, 2013, Gaga performed both "Dope" and an acoustic rendition of Artpops second single "Do What U Want" on Alan Carr: Chatty Man. In March 2014, she performed the song at South by Southwest (SXSW), while sporting fake blond dreadlocks. "Dope" was later added to the setlist of the singer's residency show, Lady Gaga Live at Roseland Ballroom. The performance took place on a piano placed on a side-stage, in a setting reminiscent of New York City's Lower East Side, complete with "neon letters that spelled '176 Stanton Street,' the address of Gaga’s former apartment." During her 2014 world tour, ArtRave: The Artpop Ball, Gaga performed "Dope" on a piano hidden inside a plastic mountain of icy crystals. Before the performance, she dedicated "Dope" to “people with addictions or mental stresses”. ==Credits and personnel==

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Artpop. Management • Recorded at Shangri-La Studios, Malibu, California and CRC Recording Studios, Chicago, Illinois • Stefani Germanotta P/K/A Lady Gaga (BMI) Sony ATV Songs LLC / Haus of Gaga Publishing, LLC / GloJoe Music Inc. (BMI), Maxwell and Carter Publishing, LLC (ASCAP) Personnel • Lady Gaga – songwriter, lead vocals, producer, piano • Rick Rubin – producer • Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair – songwriter • Nick Monson – songwriter • Dino Zisis – songwriter • Jason Lader – recording, digital editing, keyboards • Ryan Hewitt – recording • Sean Oakley – recording • Eric Lynn – recording assistant • Joshua Smith – recording assistant • Dave "Squirrel" Covell – recording assistant • Bill Malina – additional recording • Steve Faye – recording assistant • Manny Marroquin – mixing at Larrabee Sound Studios, North Hollywood, California • Chris Galland – mixing assistant • Delbert Bowers – mixing assistant • Andrew Scheps – additional mixing at Punker-Pad Mobile • Adam MacDougall – keyboards • Ivy Skoff – union contract administrator • Gene Grimaldi – audio mastering at Oasis Mastering Studios in Burbank, California ==Charts==