Music

Pusha T wrote McDonald's 'I'm lovin' it' jingle

by Richard Howard

You don’t believe me. I know this. And I don’t blame you – my brain fell out of my head too when I heard it. But stick with me and I’ll explain how this is actually a real thing.

In 2003, marketing giant DDB and its member advertising firm Heye & Partner were looking for a jingle to tie to their “I’m Lovin’ It” campaign. As companies full of old white dudes will often do when attempting to attract hip, young clientele, they outsourced to a younger (and undoubtedly referred to in meetings as ‘more urban’) firm: in this case, hip-hop exec Steve Stoute’s Translation agency.

As we all know, the decision was made to have Justin Timberlake sing the hook and The Neptunes handle production. Later, Pharrell Williams would go on to pen an entire song based on that hook for Timberlake (surprise – it wasn’t the other way around).

But if you go back and listen to the original TV spot, the majority of what you’ll hear is two rapped verses separated and sandwiched by Timberlake’s famous “badabababa, I’m lovin’ it” hook which lasts only a few seconds. At the time, one would’ve assumed that these were two no-name street rappers brought in on the cheap.

Well, hold on to your socks, because it turns out that the gentlemen rapping “Move your feet, rock to the beat/Hungry for the music gotta eat” were none other than Pusha T and Malice, collectively known as the greatest coke-rap group of all time, Clipse. Gotta be bullshit, right? Take a listen with your newfound knowledge and see if you recognize these voices.

*Mind exploding hand gesture*

The logistics check out at well. At the time, Clipse was signed to Pharrell’s Star Trak Entertainment imprint. Commissioned to create the jingle, Williams would obviously utilize two of his best rappers whose careers he was trying to launch at the time.

It turns out this has been not-so-common knowledge for a while, but things went nuts when, in a recent Hot 97 interview, Steve Stoute corrected host Ebro and claimed that it was Pusha T as opposed to Pharrell who wrote the jingle.

I think Mr. Stoute may have been looking for a soundbite, and in all reality it was a collaborative effort – still, the fact remains that Clipse provided the majority of the lyrics for one of the most successful ad campaigns of all time. And in case you’re thinking they temporarily sold out, check out the lines they managed to slip into the lyrics:

“Since I don’t cook I’ll just rock to the beat”

and

“I’m lovin’ it no guts no glory/Seems like I stumbled in the wrong territory”

These lines take on a slightly different tilt when you realize they’re coming from the kings of coke-rap.

In his Hot 97 interview, Steve Stoute declined to say how much they made off the campaign, but in the understatement of the decade, assured that nobody involved “was upset” at their take. Or, as Pusha T just hilariously tweeted in response to the furor:

And that, my friends, is your WTF news of the day.

[h/t XXL Mag]