"Stress" is a song by French electronic music duo Justice, the tenth track on their debut studio album Cross. A music video for the song, directed by Romain Gavras, was released on 1 May 2008 through the website of American rapper Kanye West. The video, which was subject to severe criticism, is notable for its extremely controversial content, which includes scenes of gang violence performed by young teenagers across Paris. The song itself received positive reviews from critics. Composition "Stress" is an electro house song that lasts a duration of four minutes and fifty-nine seconds. The track contains samples of "Night on Disco Mountain" by David Shire. In a Maxim interview, Xavier de Rosnay of Justice commented that the song was mixed in such a way that it could be an unpleasant listen and "almost give you a headache." Critical reception Despite the criticism and controversy surrounding its accompanying music video, the song itself received positive reviews from critics. Thomas Gorton of Dazed called "Stress" a "brilliant tune". Sarah Boden labeled the song as a highlight from Cross, saying that the song "may be the most claustrophobic club pounder you've ever encountered," and that "its piercing, incessant strings are married to a shuffling beat; think Psycho's Norman Bates doing the moonwalk." Evan Sawdey of PopMatters compared the song's horror and Halloween-esque style to that of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and commented that "'Stress' opens like a double-time horror movie theme, all stabbing strings and John Carpenter undertones slowly co-existing before transforming into a Halloween party ass-shaker of the highest order". Music video The music video for "Stress" was originally uploaded to the website of American rapper Kanye West on 1 May 2008. It was uploaded to YouTube shortly afterwards. Lasting nearly seven minutes, it was directed by Romain Gavras and shot in 16mm film in Paris. The video is centered on young Parisian teenagers who go about the city and commit gang violence; de Rosnay himself described the video as "seven minutes of pure violence in a way people are not used to seeing". During the video, they violently harass civilians in public, vandalize property, and also jack a vehicle and set it ablaze afterward. The video also features many people of black skin, which led to people thinking of the video as racist. In response to people thinking about the video this way, Gaspard Augé of Justice responded in an