First Class

Album: Come Home the Kids Miss You (2022)
Charted: 2 1
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "First Class" is a braggadocios track where Jack Harlow boasts about the changes in his lifestyle since he dropped his breakout hit "What's Poppin" in early 2020. Now he can pay for his friends and family to travel first class, treat his lady to the finer things in life, and upsize his mom and dad's property.

    Harlow also flexes his career achievements when he shouts out UPS workers who deliver his gold and platinum plaques.
  • Harlow interpolates lyrics from Fergie's 2007 hit "Glamorous" in the chorus. He makes an acronym with the first four letters to describe his lifestyle.

    I been a (G), throw up the (L), sex in the (A.M.)

    G: Harlow sees himself as a gangsta
    L: Harlow's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, remains important to him. Throwing up an L is a common Louisville gesture.
    AM: Harlow likes to make love in the morning.
  • Harlow released "First Class" as the second single from Come Home the Kids Miss You on April 8, 2022. Four days earlier, he posted a snippet of the song on TikTok that helped build a buzz for the song as creators used it to soundtrack videos. Many other artists with young fanbases followed this model, putting out bits of their songs on TikTok before their release.
  • The production by Jack Harlow, Angel Lopez, Charlie Handsome, Jasper Harris, Nickie Jon Paboìn, and Rogét Chahayed incorporates a mellow piano melody.
  • Keyboardist Chahayed and drummer Lopez worked with Harlow in the studio throughout the recording of Come Home the Kids Miss You. His main goal, the rapper told Rolling Stone, is to ensure the songs develop musically as they go along. Their task with the production is to "make you continue to listen to a song. That's been the whole mission."
  • The song debuted at #1 on the Hot 100, becoming Jack Harlow's second chart-topper and first on his own. He previously visited the summit when he guested on Lil Nas X's "Industry Baby," which spent a week at the peak position in October 2021.
  • Jack Harlow opened the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards by performing this song in a set designed to look like the first class cabin of an airplane with performers and presenters from the show as passengers. When he walked on stage, he was joined by Fergie, who sang bits of "Glamorous" with him along with "First Class."

    When the song took the award for Song Of Summer, Harlow said, "'Glamorous' was one of the biggest and most important songs of my childhood. It influenced my whole style. 'First Class' is me, it's who I am."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

The Fratellis

The FratellisSongwriter Interviews

Jon Fratelli talks about the band's third album, and the five-year break leading up to it.

Rush: Album by Album - A Conversation With Martin Popoff

Rush: Album by Album - A Conversation With Martin PopoffSong Writing

A talk with Martin Popoff about his latest book on Rush and how he assessed the thousands of albums he reviewed.

Richard Marx

Richard MarxSongwriter Interviews

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

Song Cities

Song CitiesMusic Quiz

Nirvana, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen are among those who wrote songs with cities that show up in this quiz.

Chris Rea

Chris ReaSongwriter Interviews

It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.