A super brief history on the samples used in that song you can’t get out of your head
Big Sean conducted a symphony of middle fingers with his anti-cosign anthem “I Don’t Fuck With You.” The shady aftermath of his high-profile relationship with Glee star Naya Rivera (who married another dude on the alleged date she was going to wed Sean) offers the perfect springboard for the DJ Mustard and Kanye West co-produced track. The Detroit player pulls a Beyoncé and addresses the drama on wax while cutting his unnamed ex all the way off, spitting, “Bitch I don’t give a fuck about you or anything that you do.”
Once the Kanye soul sample creeps in by song’s end, Sean doesn’t sound as salty, giving thanks like it was dinnertime with lines like “I got a new chick that I gotta thank God for” (Ariana Grande?) and “I got a new whip that I gotta thank a lot for.”
Then the unexpected happens: the G.O.O.D. kid goes Deepak Chopra of the hood, offering up his own golden rule for relationships: “Everything got a bad side, even a conscience/ Now you’re drinkin’ ’til you’re unconscious/ Feel me when you get a fine bitch/ Just don’t forget to read the fine print.”
Despite the explicit content, the Mustard-doused beat and Mr. West’s melody make Sean’s “FU” sound pitch perfect. Below, a breakdown on the samples in “I Don’t Fuck With You.”
Sample Identified: Big Sean feat. E-40 “I Don’t Fuck With You”
As First Heard On: DJ Rogers’ “Say You Love Me” – The softer side of Sean’s F-bomb comes from soul singer DJ Rogers’ 1976 track, which peaked at no. 51 on Billboard’s R&B charts. The throaty yells to “Say you love me!” not only contradict the rapper’s rage, it’s also the exact opposite of Sean’s Finally Famous sleeper “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me.” Ironically, the 2011 song was perceived as a song about Sean’s ex and high school sweetheart Ashley—they split in 2013 because Naya (allegedly)—who has been the muse for a bulk of his catalog. (See also the Miguel-assisted “Ashley.”) Most memorable line: “What’s the perfect girl if it’s not the perfect time?”
//www.youtube.com/embed/slLZTCkKCDI
Special Shoutout: E-40! After the Naya Rivera shade bait subsides, the Bay Area rep ditches the girl talk (“I make a bitch stand outside forever like the Statue of Liberty”) and dances on the beat, even paying homage to late rapper Pimp C while pouring drank in his mouth. In another dose of irony, an autopsy showed that the Underground King passed away in 2007 from ODing on promethazine and codeine, the two main ingredients in the South’s libation of choice, lean.