"Suit & Tie" is a song by American singer Justin Timberlake featuring American rapper Jay-Z from the former's third studio album, The 20/20 Experience (2013). Written and produced by Timberlake, Timbaland, and J-Roc, with additional writing from James Fauntleroy and Jay-Z, it contains a portion of the 1972 song "Sho' Nuff" by Sly, Slick and Wicked, whose members are credited as co-writers as a result. A mid-tempo R&B and soul song, it incorporates a drawl, 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".
Released on January 14, 2013, as the lead single from The 20/20 Experience, "Suit & Tie" received mixed-to-positive reviews from music critics, who praised its production and Timberlake's vocal performance but were divided on its impact as a comeback single. It became a commercial 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, the UK singles chart, and the Canadian Hot 100. By 2018, it had sold 3.3 million downloads in the US.
The accompanying music video, directed by David Fincher, was shot on January 25, 2013, and released on Timberlake's Vevo page on Valentine's Day 2013. Timberlake and Jay-Z promoted "Suit & Tie" with performances at the DirecTV Super Saturday Night, the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, Saturday Night Live, the SXSW MySpace Secret Show, and the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. Additionally, it was included on the set lists for four of the former's concert tours: the Legends of the Summer Stadium Tour (2013), the 20/20 Experience World Tour (2013–2015), the Man of the Woods Tour (2018–2019), and the Forget Tomorrow World Tour (2024–2025).
Background In September 2006, Timberlake released his second album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, which was a commercial success and received generally positive reviews from music critics. The album spawned six singles, including the US number-one singles "SexyBack", "My Love", and "What Goes Around... Comes Around". After wrapping up a worldwide concert tour to support the album in 2007, Timberlake took a break from his music career to focus on acting, with occasional guest appearances on several singles by Madonna, T.I., Jamie Foxx, Timbaland, and Esmée Denters.
Timberlake's music manager Johnny Wright approached him in 2010, discussing possibility of going back to his music career and the difficulties of releasing his future material, because according to Wright, "a lot of the physical record sellers were gone, by the time they've got music again they needed to think about different ways to deliver it". Wright proposed a promotion based on an application or releasing a new song every month. Timberlake, however, was not interested in returning to music; instead, he continued to focus on his film career. Around the "late part of May, first week in June" 2012, Timberlake invited Wright to dinner and revealed that he had spent the last couple of nights in the studio with Timbaland working on new material. Wright was shocked by the revelation, and the two immediately began planning how to promote and release the album. Ultimately, they agreed on a shorter period, seven or eight weeks, between the singles and the album. Wright told Billboard that "such a short window" demanded "a big impact".
In August 2012, producer Jim Beanz reported that Timberlake had started work on his new music project. Shortly after the announcement, Timberlake's publicist denied plans for a new album, stating Timberlake was instead working on Timbaland's upcoming project Shock Value III. Wright stated that although the project involved artists who are primarily Timberlake's friends, it was tough to keep it a secret, so they used codenames. Originally planned for release in October 2012, Timberlake's project was postponed because of his wedding to actress Jessica Biel.
Composition
"Suit & Tie" was written by Timberlake, Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley, Shawn Carter, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, and James Fauntleroy, and produced by Timbaland, Timberlake, and Harmon; it contains a portion of "Sho' Nuff", written by Terrence Stubbs, Johnny Wilson, and Charles Still of Sly, Slick and Wicked. It is a mid-tempo R&B and soul song. Written in the key of D major, Timberlake's vocal range spans from E4 to B5. It is a dance-oriented track that incorporates stop-and-start sections, resembling his debut single "Like I Love You" (2002). Lyrically, it is "an ode to the joys of being handsome and well-dressed". The song begins with a slow intro comprising drawl, sluggish synths and "slightly out of time" drum claps. After a brief pause it settles into a "rolling, laidback" groove, featuring Timbaland's "shiny collection" of percussions, finger clicks, and old-school horns that add a layer of sophistication. It then goes into a "hypnotic, engaging outro before a great, cold ending".
Mickey Woods of Glamour said "Suit & Tie" "is filled to the brim with horns, addictive hooks, and unprecedented swagger", while Jim Farber of the New York Daily News wrote that it is in the "classic" style of Curtis Mayfield, yet "isn't in any way conventionally retro". Dan Hyman of NBC News described "Suit & Tie" as "a horn-addled shuffler likely to inspire many new dance routines", while Billy Johnson Jr. of Yahoo Music said it "offers a more mature sound saturated in a live band feel with trumpets, saxophones, bass guitar, chimes and cowbells that recall the rich soul music of the '70s". Brian Mansfield of USA Today described it as having a "seductive swirl of synths and horn riffs", while Zach Dionne of Vulture noted it starts with "45 seconds of slow groove" before "dipping into an atmospheric, horn-padded Timbaland beat that'll set necks swiveling and bodies moving this week and long beyond". According to Tom Breihan of Stereogum, the song is "slick and aspirational dancefloor R&B that sounds like Timberlake's nod toward the godawful-boring mid-2000s grown-and-sexy moment", while Adam Tait of Gigwise described it as "a smooth and sexy piece of R&B that captures a slight taste of hip-hop thanks to the appearances of Timbaland and Jay-Z".
Zack O'Malley Greenburg of Forbes noted "Timberlake's breezy vocals atop a swirly tickling of piano keys and occasional bursts of brass and bass", while Luke Morgan Britton of The Line of Best Fit noted it "shows off JT's signature falsetto, some epic trumpeteering, Jay-Z slowing things down a bit and Timbaland's ever-crisp production". Andy Kellman of AllMusic noted the song "draws from early- to mid-'70s soul instead of late-'70s disco-funk, decked out in horns, marimba, and harp", while Melinda Newman of HitFix said it "floats along" like a song from The Whispers, but Timbaland's production pays homage without sounding dated.
Release In early January 2013, via his official Twitter account, Timberlake posted, "I think I'M READY" and later tweeted a link to a YouTube video explaining his absence from music. In the minute-long video, a camera follows Timberlake as he walks through a recording studio, while his voice-over explains it has been so long since his last album because he is not interested in releasing anything he does not love. The video closes with Timberlake entering a recording booth, putting on headphones, and saying, "I'm ready". Subsequently, on the singer's official site, a countdown leading up to Monday, January 14, at 12 am. ET appeared, prompting speculation about the release of a new single and album to break Timberlake's hiatus. That timing coincided with a tweet that Power 105.1 radio personality Charlamagne posted, saying, "Justin, Jay-Z Timbaland. New record Monday".
"Suit & Tie" was released by RCA Records on January 14, 2013, and was promoted as the lead single from Timberlake's third studio album, The 20/20 Experience, released on March 15, 2013. Additionally, Timberlake collaborated with social media platform Myspace for the site's relaunch on January 15. The site's front page featured an image of Timberlake in a suit and tie, and Myspace offered to stream or download "Suit & Tie" to those who signed up for or logged in to Myspace. Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm wrote that by doing this, Timberlake "appears to be sending a message to other artists about what the new Myspace is for: posting music for free, and trying to upsell it to downloads".
Critical reception
Upon release, "Suit & Tie" received mixed-to-positive reviews from music critics. Andy Kellman of AllMusic gave it three out of five stars, stating it "serves the same flirty dancefloor purpose" as "Rock Your Body". Andrew Halverson of Beats Per Minute said the song "seems to point to the notion that JT still knows what he's doing". Deb Doing Dallas of the Dallas Observer called it "just one song off an album that is entirely capable of making up for this sleepy release". A reviewer from The Independent wrote that Timberlake's voice appears to have "gone up an octave" since he last released new music. The reviewer also compared "Suit & Tie" to "Rock Your Body" and "SexyBack". August Brown of the Los Angeles Times called it "a radiant, ramshackle song that's less of a coherent single and more of a coronation event". Melinda Newman of HitFix said to "leave it to Timberlake" to represent R&B in a way that "few contemporary artists are today", noting Bruno Mars and Miguel as exceptions.
Rebecca Twomey of Marie Claire said: "It appears it's been worth the wait too as Justin is posed to shake-up the charts with his new sound". Stephen Deusner of Pitchfork awarded "Suit & Tie" the website's Best New Track tag, praising Timberlake's vocal performance and Timbaland's production by saying: "Timbaland creates a smooth beat out of a marimba roll and harp glissando that Marvin Gaye must have left on the cutting-room floor, and Timberlake rides it with that fluid, effortless falsetto". Deusner, however, called the feature verse from Jay-Z "another in a string of uninspired cameos", but said it could not "sink [the song's] slinky vibe". Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone gave it three-and-a-half out of five stars, and said it "is natty—as expertly tailored and crisply pressed as a high-end tux". Chris Martins of Spin said: "Timberlake's voice sounds stronger than ever—smoother, more rounded, pretty, mature". Vogue Australia said: "While not ground-breaking by any means, its the perfect track for summer soirees and will please his legion of pop-loving fans".
Jason Lipshutz of Billboard gave "Suit & Tie" three-and-a-half out of five stars, and said it "is a good song, but it's not the artifact from another planet that we've been expecting, nor it is the ambitious experiment that Timberlake alludes to when he describes heading into the studio and 'just creating with no rules'". Ernest Wilkins of Chicago Tribune said the song "sounds like it was conceived, recorded, funded, and sponsored by a department store that hasn't been relevant in a long time". Michael Cragg of The Guardian wrote that it feels like the work of someone "luxuriating in the fact they're making music again" rather than someone "desperate to redefine pop in the face of its recent club-related slump". He stated it is not a "sound-redefining, statement-making, globe-conquering comeback single" like "SexyBack", but "more of a midway point" between his previous singles "Señorita" and "Summer Love". Nate Jones of Popdust gave it three-and-a-half out of five, and said to "think of it as an homage to Jay-Z's wife, as a thank you for Jay guesting on a song about Justin's own better half".