Songfacts®:

• R&B singer R. Kelly opens the GOOD Music collaborative studio album, Cruel Summer, by urging listeners to throw their middle fingers up. He goes on to proclaim, "The whole world is a couch, bitch, I'm Rick James tonight," in a nod to the famous Chappelle Show skit, Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories: Rick James, which pokes fun at the legendary rock star. Kelly is saying the world is his couch and he can do what he wants in reference to when Rick James started scraping his dirty boots on Charlie and Eddie Murphy's seat.
• West throws a jab at Mitt Romney, when he raps: "I'm just trying to protect my stacks. Mitt Romney don't pay no tax, Mitt Romney don't pay no tax." The Good Music head honcho is referencing Romney's refusal to make more than two years of his tax returns public, and the accusation by the Democrats that the Republic President nominee has been less than open with his financial records.
• Harlem native Teyana Taylor closes the song. She also features on two other Cruel Summer tracks, providing the hook and chorus for "Sin City," and duetting with John Legend on "Bliss." Taylor previously contributed vocals to the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy tracks, "Dark Fantasy" and "Hell Of a Life."
• Atlanta rapper Roscoe Dash claimed on Twitter that he contributed to the writing of this song but wasn't properly credited. "If u listen close my adlibs are STILL in the song," he tweeted.
• R. Kelly discussed working with Kanye West on this song in an interview with Billboard magazine. He said: "It's like shirt meets tie, it's all business and it looks good. With us both being from Chicago we can relate to each other from a city standpoint, culture standpoint and also music standpoint. It's magical."