Songfacts®:

• This is about how in clubs only the fast-tempo songs are played for dancing, going dumb; but how sometimes there needs to be a slow jam by Smokey Robinson or The Isley Brothers between every few sets just to create the mood. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Christina - Nor*Cal, CA
• Twista's real name is Carl Mitchell. He is a tongue-twisting rapper from the West Side of Chicago who released his debut album in 1991, Runnin' Off At Da Mouth. The Guinness Book of World Records credited him the fastest rapper in the world in 1992 (the record has since been broken). The fast-rapping style has been used to great success by rappers like Ludacris and Jay-Z.
• Actor Jamie Foxx sang the hook. Foxx got his start on the comedy show In Living Color, and has been in the movies Ali, Any Given Sunday and Ray. He is also a talented singer and comedian.
• This was produced by Kanye West, who also raps on a verse. He has also produced tracks for Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.
• This samples Luther Vandross' version of "A House Is Not A Home," which was written by the famous songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. They got songwriting credits on this because of the sample. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Miki - Columbia, MD, for all above
• Kanye West recorded his own version for his debut album The College Dropout. It includes an intro and two extra verses by Jamie Foxx, and excludes the original outro by Twista.
• West recorded his rap when he was best known as a producer and just starting out as a rapper. However, Ye was confident that he was going to make it big in the hip hop world. Speaking to the New York Times in a 2013 interview West recalled: "When I wrote the line 'light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson' [from this song] I was going to be a big star. At the time, they used to have the Virgin music [stores], and I would go there and just go up the escalator and say to myself, 'I'm soaking in these last moments of anonymity.' I knew I was going to make it this far; I knew that this was going to happen."
• Jamie Foxx was convinced the song was going to bomb after Kanye West told him not to turn the hook into an elaborate R&B tune. "He said, 'Don't do that. Things have changed, just sing it simple,'" Foxx recalled on US morning show Live with Kelly and Ryan. "So when I sing the song, I'm thinking in my mind, 'This song ain't gonna work'."
  
  Foxx added: "I do the song begrudgingly, leave and do a bad movie for six weeks, come back, (and) when I get back, my homie said, 'You know that song you said was bad? It's #1 in the country!'"