 The music video for " Upgrade U " was shot during the two @-@ week filming for the B 'Day Anthology Video Album . It was directed by Melina and Knowles herself . The video was shot between those of " Kitty Kat " and " Green Light " , and took about one and half days of filming . Jay @-@ Z performed his rap scenes first , afterwards Knowles studied his scene , and then did her impersonation of him . Melina said : " If anybody knows Jay @-@ Z , it would be Beyoncé " . Knowles commented on her impersonation of Jay @-@ Z on MTV , " I love what I did in [ ' Upgrade U ' ] because it 's completely out of my character , or at least the character that people think I am . I was pretending to be Jay [ <unk> ] , and he was there , and I told him he had to leave , because I couldn 't do it with him in the room — it was way too embarrassing . I think I did a pretty good job . I had the lip curl down ! " The video premiered on February 28 , 2007 , on BET 's 106 & Park , with the video for Knowles ' other single release , " Beautiful Liar " ( 2007 ) featuring Shakira , premiering the same day on Total Request Live ( TRL ) . 
