Exchange

Album: Trapsoul (2015)
Charted: 26
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Bryson Tiller sings here of using his medium of music to reconnect with an old flame from college that has been thinking fondly about. He hopes she will give him another chance after hearing his song being played, and realizing he's singing to her.

    Tiller wrote in a Genius annotation: "That's real. A girl will be listening to something like "Don't" and I'll talk about her, and then she's like, "OK, I know he's talking about me."

    "And that girl – nobody even knows that we talk to each other. But, she knows out of all those people listening to the song, that message is resonating with her."
  • The beat was supplied by Florida production and songwriting duo The Mekanics, who consist of Michael "Foreign Teck" Hernandez and Rico "5 Star" Evans. Other productions on their resume include The Rich Gang's "50 Plates" and French Montana's "Lose It." Tiller recalled: "I just got the beat from my manager, from The Mechanics, and I was like, 'OK, this s--t dope.'"

    "Instantly it was like I gotta do something on it. It just felt like college to me, so I was just gonna stay in that realm and talk about a girl from college."
  • The Mekanics' beat samples K.P. & Envyi's 1998 hit "Swing My Way." "I heard the K.P. and Envyi sample before, but I didn't recognize it right away," Tiller admitted. "That wasn't a song that I always listened to."
  • Foreign Teck was initially planning to sample Ghost Town DJ's tune "My Boo" until he accidentally clicked on "Swing My Way" in a YouTube playlist and became engrossed with it.

    "How the f--k is mine gonna be different from everybody else's? So when I heard this sample, and all the extra, intricate things that I added to, the fills and whatnot. That's the only way I thought to create it," he told Genius.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Richard Marx

Richard MarxSongwriter Interviews

Richard explains how Joe Walsh kickstarted his career, and why he chose Hazard, Nebraska for a hit.

Jon Anderson of Yes

Jon Anderson of YesSongwriter Interviews

From the lake in "Roundabout" to Sister Bluebird in "Starship Trooper," Jon Anderson talks about how nature and spirituality play into his lyrics for Yes.

Michael Glabicki of Rusted Root

Michael Glabicki of Rusted RootSongwriter Interviews

Michael tells the story of "Send Me On My Way," and explains why some of the words in the song don't have a literal meaning.

Steve Cropper (Booker T & the MG's, Blues Brothers)

Steve Cropper (Booker T & the MG's, Blues Brothers)Songwriter Interviews

Steve Cropper on the making of "In the Midnight Hour," the chicken-wire scene in The Blues Brothers, and his 2021 album, Fire It Up.

90s Metal

90s MetalFact or Fiction

Test your metal - Priest, Maiden, and Beavis and Butt-head show up in this one.

Taylor Dayne

Taylor DayneSongwriter Interviews

Taylor talks about "The Machine" - the hits, the videos and Clive Davis.