A runner-up is a participant who finishes in second place in any of a variety of competitive endeavors, especially sporting events and beauty pageants; in the latter instance, the term is applied to more than one of the highest-ranked non-winning contestants, the second-place finisher being designated "first runner-up", the third-place finisher "second runner-up", and so on.
While loosely acceptable for describing any second-place finisher in a sporting event, the "runner-up" label is more properly appended to one that finishes in that position as the result of having lost in the final round of an elimination tournament; specifically, its most frequent use is encountered in tennis, and refers to the player (or doubles team) that loses the final match; in most tennis tournaments, a testimonial award, often in the form of a plate, is given to the runner(s)-up following the final match, with the winner(s) receiving a trophy instead.
In American team sports, the term is usually avoided in official circles, because the team losing in the final round of the postseason playoffs will have had to have won the championship of a lesser entity as a condition for reaching the finals; in basketball, American football and Ice hockey this would have been a conference championship, and in baseball a league championship, or colloquially, the league "pennant". Consequently, the losing finalist will typically be referred to as the champion of its conference (or league in the case of baseball) rather than as a runner-up. Although the team that won the finals will also be a conference (or league in baseball) champion by necessity, it is usually not referred to as such because the title of "finals champion" carries more prestige.
Success Is Certain is the fifth album by rapper Royce da 5'9" and his last independent album, released on August 9, 2011. The first single is "Writer's Block" featuring Eminem, which was released in March 2011. Production for the album came from DJ Premier, Mr. Porter, Eminem, Nottz, StreetRunner, The Futuristiks and The Alchemist among others. Guest appearances include Eminem, Joe Budden, Kid Vishis and Travis Barker.
The album artwork, track listing, and related promo art (such as a full-website "takeover" on RapRadar) was created by Brett Lindzen. The official artwork was revealed on July 4, 2011. The artwork depicts a black Rolls-Royce car parallel parked in front of the Detroit Savings Bank. The photo is in black and white. Instead of Royce da 5'9"'s full stage name, the cover shows only "R5'9"" with "Royce" written in smaller font below. The tracklist was revealed the same day with the availability for pre-order.
"Writer's Block" was announced to be the first single from Success Is Certain. It was released March 29, 2011, on iTunes. The song features Detroit rapper Eminem, but only on the hook. It is produced by StreetRunner and Raymond (SAROM) Diaz. Royce da 5'9" originally reached out to Eminem for this song. Later, they started recording for Bad Meets Evil's EP, Hell: The Sequel. It was confirmed that this would still be used on Royce's Success Is Certain. "Second Place" was released on June 14, 2011, as the second single from the album. It was produced by DJ Premier. There were rumors that Royce had originally planned for this song to feature Raekwon and Method Man, but did not because of the leak. Later this was confirmed false. "Legendary" was released on July 19, 2011, on iTunes as the third single from the album. All three singles from the album can be streamed at Royce's website.
its breathtaking to think of you and to learn that sometimes the only way out is through its mindnumbing to think of
yesterday i'll run to you now if i could but things have changed
[chorus]
(i heard you say) its enlightening to think of the breeze and to believe in things that we can't see
(so here we go) lets show them how to live accept the pain always forgive watch the sun go down learn the sound of
following all that is complete
its breathtaking to think of you and to learn without faith that the sky isn't as blue its mindnumbing to think of
yesterday we'll look toward the stars and dream that we're airplanes
i heard you say its enlightening to think of the breeze
when you watch the sun set, think of me
so here we go
lets show them how to live
accept the pain, always forgive
watch the sun go down, learn the sound of following all thats complete
so here we go.
lets show them how to live
accept the pain, always forgive
watch the sun go down, learn the sound of following all thats complete
lets show them how to live
accept the pain, always forgive
watch the sun go down, learn the sound of following all thats complete.