Slide
by H.E.R. (featuring YG)

Album: Back of My Mind (2019)
Charted: 43
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Gabriella "H.E.R." Wilson pays tribute to the distinctive bouncy sound of her native San Francisco Bay area. She trades sultry verses during the track with Compton's own YG.

    Everywhere we go, slide, hey, hey
    Up all night, baby, when we goin' slide?
    Oh, yeah, yeah
    Baby when we goin'
    Slide, slide, slide, oh yeah, slide, oh


    Wilson explained in a Genius attribution that "when we goin' to slide" is Bay area lingo. She is talking about the urgency of let's be in this moment, as in: "When we going? Where are we going? What are we doing?"
  • The song originated from a baseline that producer Cardo had played to Wilson. She started singing melodies over the track, then listened back and filled in the words. Wilson can't remember if the word "slide" came with the melody or she was writing the words, "but everything was just a flow. Like it felt so seamless in creation."
  • Wilson debuted the song on September 14, 2019, during her headline performance at the Lights On Festival in Concord, California.
  • The song has a Bonnie & Clyde vibe.

    I don't care if we on the run
    Nothin' matters when we one on one


    H.E.R. explained to Billboard magazine: "We take moments and relationships lightly. So I'm saying [in the lyrics] that we're on the same page and same wavelength. I'm trying to grow and get somewhere with somebody. So where do we take it from here?"
  • The Romanian-American beatmaker Mario Luciano and Florida-born producer engineer Leon "Thurdi" McQuay III came up with the original beat. Luciano told Genius the initial idea started with the pair playing some chords on a Rhodes electric piano through an amp and McQuay singing background vocals.

    After processing it, they called in their friend Jimmy, who added guitars, single notes and chords. Once they'd completed the instrumentation, Luciano contacted his friend Che Ecru (Chris Brown and Drake's "No Guidance"), who has worked with Cardo before. He asked Che to slide his folder of samples to Cardo next time he saw him, which is how the producer got to hear their beat. Cardo added the drums, played it to H.E.R., and the rest is history... make that HERstory.

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