Mind Your Business
by will.i.am (featuring Britney Spears)

Album: yet to be titled (2023)
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Songfacts®:

  • Will.i.am is a longtime fan, friend and supporter of Britney Spears. The pop icon has been in the public eye since the late 1990s and has been through plenty of ups and downs in her personal life. During her conservatorship, Britney was constantly under scrutiny by the media, and her every move was dissected and analyzed. In "Mind Your Business," she and will.i.am tell folks to back off and let her live her life in peace.

    "When you're in the spotlight, a lot of times you just want to live your life," will.i.am said on CBC Mornings. "There's lyrics in the song that point to that not just for people that are in the spotlight but even on my verse I say 'Hands up in the cookie jar. They watching me, they watching y'all.' That has to do with privacy and everyone else, every individual out there who feels that they are not living a private life in social media. There's a thin line, and everyone deserves their own version of privacy is what 'Mind Your Business' is."
  • Britney also explored the obsessive media attention and her desire for privacy on her 2007 hit "Piece Of Me."
  • Will.i.am has worked with Britney on three previous occasions:

    2011 "Big Fat Bass" for Britney's Femme Fatale album
    2012 "Scream & Shout" for will.i.am's solo album, willpower
    2013 The Black Eyed Peas star executive produced Britney's 2013 album, Britney Jean, which included the will.i.am-featuring single "It Should Be Easy"
  • Will.i.am and Britney co-wrote "Mind Your Business" with Johnny Goldstein and Anthony Preston.

    Israeli producer and songwriter Yonatan "Johnny" Goldstein produced 12 tracks on Black Eyed Peas' 2020 Translation album, including the singles "Mamacita," "Vida Loca" and "Girl Like Me."

    Texan songwriter and producer Anthony Preston frequently works with will.i.am. He was an associate executive producer on Britney Jean and has writing and/or producing credits on 11 tracks.
  • "Mind Your Business" was likely first recorded in 2013 for the Britney Jean album. Spears revealed to Vogue the track stemmed from a conversation the two stars had. "We worked on this song years ago, and it was time to reproduce it and share it with my incredible fans," she said. "We went back and forth on making the song more current, and adding a heavy base and choir to it."

    "Britney had some great input about the music," will.i.am added, "to add hip-hop elements that we incorporated into the final track."

    Also, Britney's backing vocalist, Myah Marie, stated in a 2020 interview with the Princess of Pop's community website Breatheheavy.com that she recorded an unreleased demo for Britney Jean that had the word "business" in the title.

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