2020, it was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry for shipments of 200,000 copies in the UK. The single charted at numbers 7 and 15 on the Belgian Flanders and Walloon Singles Charts, respectively. On the Danish Singles Chart, "Can't Hold Us Down" peaked at number 8, while its highest position on the German Media Control Charts was number 9. Music video The music video for "Can't Hold Us Down" was directed by David LaChapelle, who previously directed the music video for Strippeds lead single "Dirrty" in 2002. It was filmed in a Los Angeles soundstage that depicted a 1980s Lower East Side neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. LaChapelle described the concept of the video as his "ode to the '80s". In the video, Aguilera wears a pink midriff shirt matching a sleeveless sports jacket and pair of shorts, a purple baseball cap embroidered with the words "Lady C", and white long socks. She is seen with dyed black hair and gold earrings. As the video starts with Aguilera is chatting with a group of women. When Aguilera leaves the conversation, a man suddenly grabs her butt, making Aguilera stop and causing an argument between them. As she continues to sing, the nearby women in the neighborhood join her, while the male dancers are joined and form their respective sides in the street. They performed their own hip hop dance skills against each other. At the bridge, Lil' Kim appears in a bikini and a mesh black coat, and dances in her high heels. The argument ends with Aguilera spraying the men with a water hose, which she holds between her legs and parodies the penis. Reception Jason Heller from The A.V. Club criticized LaChappelle for "[swallowing] the message" of the track by following an unrelated concept in the clip. In the book Music Video and the Politics of Representation, Diane Railton and Paul Watson felt that the video exemplified cultural appropriation, specifically noting how Aguilera conducted herself as an African-American woman, and elaborated that it emphasized "a range of issues concerning the representation of gender and race". Andy Cohn from The Fader provided a more favorable review, and opined that Aguilera's "sass" helped to highlight her mixed Irish-Ecuadorian background. The music video for "Can't Hold Us Down" has received scholarly attention as an example of cultural appropriation. Murali Balaji, author of the article "Vixen Resistin': Redefining black