Let It Go

Album: Just Like You (2007)
Charted: 7
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song about female empowerment and failed relationships features Lil Kim and Missy Elliott; the latter also produced the track. Cole explained to MTV News that all it needed was one phone call to Missy Elliott to get her on board: "I wanted her to be one of the producers on the album, so I just called her and she came through."
  • This song was originally intended for Fantasia's debut album but after Missy Elliott played it to Cole she decided she wanted it. Elliott explained to Vibe magazine: "I tried to hurry up past it cause I felt Keyshia wouldn't want it. She said she wanted to work with me and I really didn't know what kind of direction she wanted to go in. But as soon as the chords came on she was like, 'Wait-wait-wait stop! Stop!' She was like all, who record is that? I was like, well [Fantasia] had too many records on her album so I couldn't take it. And she wanted it." Cole added: "Fantasia did this track before I did it. It didn't go on her album but I thought it was real hot. So when we were all in New York, I recorded it."
  • This features a sample of the 1983 #1 R&B hit "Juicy Fruit" by the funk/soul group Mtume. Notorious B.I.G.'s 1994 debut solo single "Juicy" borrowed from the same track. Cole told MTV News: "We hooked it up. As soon as I heard ['Let It Go'], I was like, 'That one, I want that one right there.' And it's hot. It's Biggie's remake to ['Juicy'], so I had to do it."
  • It was Elliott who decided to add Lil Kim to the track. She told MTV News: "When I first did the beat, like, I immediately thought of Kim. 'Cause you immediately think of Big. For people like me from the old school, actually, I immediately think of Mtume, the first people who did it. But you think of Big, and then you think of Kim. And I thought, '[There] hasn't been a record with females all on one thing in a long time, since, like, 'Ladies Night' [the common name of the remix to Lil' Kim's "Not Tonight"].' So when you think of that, it's like, 'OK, let's make it official and put Kim on there.' And [Keyshia and I] both was with it; it sounded like a hot idea. And Kim came through and laced it."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Mike Scott of The Waterboys

Mike Scott of The WaterboysSongwriter Interviews

The stories behind "Whole Of The Moon" and "Red Army Blues," and why rock music has "outlived its era of innovation."

Justin Timberlake

Justin TimberlakeFact or Fiction

Was Justin the first to be Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher? Did Britney really blame him for her meltdown? Did his bandmates think he was gay?

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."

Church Lyrics

Church LyricsMusic Quiz

Here is the church, here is the steeple - see if you can identify these lyrics that reference church.

Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket

Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet SprocketSongwriter Interviews

The "All I Want" singer went through a long depression, playing some shows when he didn't want to be alive.

Devo

DevoSongwriter Interviews

Devo founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale take us into their world of subversive performance art. They may be right about the De-Evoloution thing.