Never Should Have

Album: Braveheart (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Ashanti singing of a former lover she now regrets. Her lyrics settle over producer Mansur's marching band-driven soundscape:

    "You never should have loved me
    You never should have touched me
    You never should have
    Never should have told me you loved me and you would never leave me."
  • Ashanti dated Nelly for five years before the pair eventually split up, and many people believe this song is about their broken romance. When asked if the song was motivated by her relationship with the St. Louis rapper, Ashanti hinted that the lyrics are directed at him without actually confirming it. "I'll just say it's a very real record that's inspired by a real experience and it came from a real place," she told The Drop.FM. "A lot of people have been in a situation where they've been betrayed or lied to or taken advantage of. Everyone has been through betrayal. It speaks volumes. It is a universal message. Everyone has been in a situation where they felt betrayed and wish you had not been put in that situation. You can feel it. This record strikes a chord. I felt it was important to be vulnerable and show I am human and that I have feelings."
  • The song featured in the finale of the seventh series of the Lifetime TV series Army Wives, in which Ashanti co-starred.

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