How Many Drinks?

Album: Kaleidoscope Dream (2012)
Charted: 69
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Songfacts®:

  • Miguel starts singing falsetto on this cut about a beautiful girl whom he is too shy to chat up, but a few drinks would give him some Dutch courage to do so. Rather than bringing in a MC for the song's rap portion, Miguel elects to spit his own bars. The R&B crooner has called in Hip-Hop artists to provide some rhymes before, having collaborated with J. Cole on the title track of his debut album.
  • Miguel admitted to Extra's Mario Lopez that the song is definitely about the number of beverages it takes to get "busy." "I'll be honest with you man," he said, "I'm pretty much straight to the point."
  • The song's remix features a verse by Kendrick Lamar, which references the Compton rapper's own booze-inspired tune, "Swimming Pools (Drank)." "Kendrick is poised to be the next staple in hip-hop [and] I certainly intend on becoming that for R&B," Miguel told Vibe magazine. "I just feel like he's just being honest in his music. Newer, younger artists, that's what we're all striving to do. Just be ourselves. Kendrick is one of the best examples of that."
  • The music video was directed by Clark Jackson (aka Constellation Jones) and finds Miguel and Kendrick Lamar performing the song on stage. "I'm super excited about this video because I haven't seen a live performance like we've done, in a really long time," Miguel told Vibe magazine. "It was really important to capture the artistry and the performance, and almost elevate the integrity and the artistry of the song because it's a pretty straightforward record."

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