Songfacts®:

• This Pharrell Williams and Timbaland-produced track finds Beyoncé in a dirty mood as she sings about oral sex. We hear the Texan Queen of Pop Music croon on the Prince-esque tune, "when you lick my skittles. It's the sweetest in the middle." We can assure you she's not talking about candy.
• The song was Beyonce's first collaboration with Timbaland, who appears later for a call and response. However the Texan singer worked with Pharrell before when he produced "Green Light" and "Kitty Kat" from her B'Day album.
• Justin Timberlake also contributed to the writing of the song; Beyoncé previously teamed up with the Mirrors singer when she appeared as a guest on his "Until The End Of Time" remix. Timberlake is also a serial collaborator with her husband, Jay-Z.
• Beyoncé told GQ magazine of working with Pharrell and Timbaland and Justin Timberlake on this song. "We all started in the '90s, when R&B was the most important genre, and we all kind of want that back: the feeling that music gave us."
• This was initially intended to be the lead pop single from Beyoncé. However, its release was cancelled at the last minute and the label decided to drop "XO" instead.
• The Hype Williams-directed video was filmed in a roller skating rink in Houston, Texas where Beyoncé skated as a child. The TMZ website said that the surprise release of the Beyoncé album and music clips was kept a secret from nearly everybody who was involved in its production. A girl named Morgan Hebert was one of the dancers in the visual, which was filmed in September 2013, and the Texan and her team made sure no one truly knew what was going on. "She and a few other dancers from Beyonce's Super Bowl show flew to Houston for the two-day shoot and it was like Fort Knox," claimed the outlet. "No cell phones, no pictures, nothing. She also had to sign a scary confidentiality agreement. Morgan says she figured it was all for a music video, but didn't expect anything to be released until next year."