The video was directed by Anthony Mandler and was filmed on August 6, 2009 at Fort Totten Park in New York City. The video was leaked on August 19, 2009 by MTV Germany. The video premiered on August 20th on MTV, as well other MTV channels across the world, and the internet. Anthony Mandler the director of the music video had this to say:

"There's a tone and feeling to the song, there's a militia, a march and a kind of rambunctious energy to it that, for me, I immediately wanted to tap into. I showed [Jay] some references from the classic rebellious zones of the world. We live in very orderly society in America, but when you get into Brazil, you get into the Middle East, you get into Africa, you get into Eastern Europe, when you get into places like that, there's a different sort of 'we run this town' [going on]. There's less order and more chaos. So we looked at a lot of those references, new photos and historical photos, to capture that kind of falling-apart feeling."

"We wanted you to feel uneasy throughout the piece," he said. "We wanted there to be a constant layer of tension through the piece. Even in the way I shot -- where the camera comes by Jay, it doesn't stop on him, it goes to Rihanna -- there's kind of this chaos of revealing and covering and concealing. And things happen offscreen that you don't see. I think people are really gonna flip on this".

The video was released to ITunes on August 25, 2009.

Jay-Z, Rihanna and West are confirmed to perform "Run This Town" on the series premiere of The Jay Leno Show on September 14.[10][11] The track is also expected to be performed at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on September 13th but it isn't officially confirmed yet. [Wikipedia]