I Don't Know
by Usher (featuring Puff Daddy)

Album: 8701 (2001)
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Songfacts®:

  • Usher teams up with Sean Combs, known at the time as P. Diddy, for this party jam where they let the lady know that they came to the club for a good time, and Usher might just take her home.

    Combs (when he was known as Puff Daddy), was an early mentor to Usher and oversaw production of his self-titled debut album, released in 1994 when Usher was 15. "I Don't Know" was part of Usher's third album, 8701, released when he was 22.
  • "I Don't Know" was produced by The Neptunes team of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, and written by Williams and Drayton Goss, who using the name Don Morock was part of the rap group The Hoodfellaz, part of P. Diddy's Bad Boy label at the time.

    The Neptunes also produced the 8701 track "U Don't Have to Call." This was early in their career; some of their other productions to this point include "Danger (Been So Long)" by Mystikal and another P. Diddy collaboration, "Lookin' At Me."

    Usher had a brigade of top talent working on the album. Other tracks were produced by Soulshock & Karlin, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, and Jermaine Dupri & Bryan-Michael Cox.
  • "I Don't Know" was released as the second single from the album, following the #1 hit "U Remind Me," but was apparently pulled soon after. It went to #68 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs but didn't reach the Hot 100. Usher's label, LaFace Records, had reported that P. Diddy was directing a video for the song, but that video was never officially released.

    LaFace quickly put out "U Got It Bad" as a single, which again climbed to #1.

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