Songfacts®:

• This is a track from Canadian hip hop artist Drake's debut album, Thank Me Later.
• This song about "empowering females" was produced by Omen (Fabolous, Julez Santana, Ludacris). The Harlem-based producer told Billboard magazine that the track came about when he teamed up with Drake's long-time musical collaborator, 40, and together they came up with the production. Omen explained: "I was working on some drum patterns and 40 had the melody going. 40 is very skilled and has a crazy ear for obscure sounds and chords. It took us the whole night to come up with the track, but we finished it and played it for Drake the next day, who already had the song's concept."
• Omen recalled to Billboard that "Drake said he had a song idea called 'Shut It Down' aimed at club-going females. When they go out and they get dressed up and put their makeup on and get their hair done, they have the capacity to shut the club down."
• The song features American R&B and synth pop singer-songwriter, The-Dream. He explained on MTV News that his collaboration with Drake came about organically. "I don't know how these things just, you know, they just happen," The-Dream explained. "You get a call and you are in there doing the record, and it just happens, man. There are so many things going on right now with me, I don't even know what's happening tomorrow. There may be somebody waiting outside for a guest appearance."
• Drake described this to Billboard magazine as "an R&B song...It's sexy. It's slow, but there's an energy to it. I rap on it. Me and Dream both sing on it. It's cool." He added that it has a "message that's never really been explored by male singers. This song is sort of like an anthem for women, like pre-the club. It's like an anthem for you to be at your house with your girlfriends getting ready, what you listen to before you get there. It's a song for the non-famous woman to make her feel special and just to let you know that even though I'm up here and have the option to mingle with these 'upper-echelon' women, if you will, that sometimes I'd rather be with the girl from back home or a student or a girl that works at Wal-Mart. They don't have to be a star or rich or anything like that; that's kind of the gist of the song. It's an empowering song for all women."
• The song came together after a lot of toing-and-froing between Drake's and The-Dream's respective camps. The-Dream recalled to Genius during the first edition of its in-depth conversation series Genius Level:
  
  "I remember when Drake was putting ["Shut It Down"] together, I was getting calls after calls after calls like, 'Yo, get on this record, get on this record.' I said, I'ma do the record, I'm on tour, as soon as I get to a place I'ma do it.' Drake called and was like, 'Yo, this is how I want it to sound.' I'm like, 'Drake, I'm gonna do this record how I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna give it back to you in the same way you sent it with your verse on it' He's like, 'Okay cool no problem. And the record came out great, I think it came out great with a lot of people doing a lot of things."