Give It 2 U

Album: Blurred Lines (2013)
Charted: 15 25
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Songfacts®:

  • The second single from Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines album was produced by Dr. Luke, who has helmed many of Kesha and Katy Perry's hits and was co-written by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas.
  • The song features a verse by Kendrick Lamar. An alternative version featuring 2 Chainz as well appears on the deluxe edition of Blurred Lines. Thicke explained to Q magazine how the two rappers both ended up contributing to the cut. "I reached out to 2 Chainz, because I'm a big 2 Chainz fan," he explained. "And I think Kendrick is amazing. So the funny thing was, my management sent it to Kendrick while I had sent it 2 Chainz. So I already had a 2 Chainz version and then suddenly we hear that Kendrick loves the record and already recorded a verse. And I was like, 'Oh my god, this is incredible.' So they're both on the song now, because it's just too good."
  • Thicke told Radio.com about the song. "It's very exciting," he said. "It's very Michael Jackson, Prince but also pretty hip-hop. It's a big, shiny pop record. It's fun."

    Thicke added that rather than write about his own life as he has done in the past, he decided to focus on just having fun on Blurred Lines. "I've written so many songs about my insecurities, my fears, my failures, my relationship problems, my personal issues, my issues with God and the universe," he said. "I've written about everything. I think that's why this album I was like, 'I don't want to write about myself anymore. I just want to write stuff that makes people feel good.' This is the most fun, feel-good music I've ever made."
  • Thicke told VH1: "Will.i am and I wrote that together in about an hour. I have a tendency to always want to bring up something negative or depressing in my songs; I always want to talk about my problems. Working with Will, we're not going to talk about our problems. We're gonna get straight to the dancefloor, straight to the sexy."
  • The song's music video was directed by Diana Martel, who also helmed Thicke's "Blurred Lines" clip and was filmed in Los Angeles. It features paper mache floats, cheerleaders, college dance teams, a girl wearing an outfit made out of cotton candy and Thicke's own son, three-year-old Julian Fuego. "The thing about Diane Martel that makes it so amazing — besides just being a crazy genius — is that she combines all different parts of the world into one soup," Thicke told MTV News. "She takes the cotton candy, she takes the beautiful football-playing girls and she mixes it all up into one beautiful pot. So we're all very lucky to have her and excited to be working with her again."

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