After teasing and anticipation, Britney Spears and will.i.am have released their new song together “Mind Your Business.”
The duo take aim at celebrity-obsessed culture in the club-ready, electronic dance track, addressing all of the looky-loos, and the paparazzi that viciously hounds them.
“Uptown, downtown, everywhere I turn around / Hollywood, London, snap-snap is the sound,” Spears sings on the track, adding, “Paparazzi shot me, I am the economy.”
Meanwhile, will.i.am laments: “Too much looky-looky, I’m so sick of all these looky-loos / Everybody lookin’ at me like I was the breakin’ news.” “Follow me, follow me, follow me, follow, follow me,” he chimes in on the hook, and adds, “Police got a sting, watchin’ every step I take / Every move I make, every breath I take.”
“Mind Your Business” is Spears’ first song since her 2022 collab with Elton John, “Hold Me Closer,” an update to his 1971 hit “Tiny Dancer.” The dance track was also the first new music Spears released since the termination of her 13-year conservatorship.
Spears last collaborated with will.i.am on the 2013 track “Scream & Shout,” the up-tempo lead single from his “Willpower” album, and the music video earned Spears her first spot in YouTube’s Billion Views Club. He also executive produced her 2013 album “Britney Jean.” Prior to that, they worked on “Big Fat Bass,” which appeared on Spears’ 2011 “Femme Fatale” album.
In a Thursday interview with “CBS Mornings,” the producer — describing himself as a “hyper-creator” who’s unafraid of AI — said he’s been a supporter of the embattled Princess of Pop for years.
“I’ve been a fan, a friend and a supporter of Britney throughout the years,” he said. “A supporter as a person that goes out and listens to her music, a supporter as somebody that’s there to help champion her through her times when she was fighting for her liberation. She is an amazing person. I’ve always been in her corner and always wanted to collaborate with her.
“And so to work with her on this record at this point in time is just a magnificent, awesome, creative moment for myself and I’m pretty sure for her fans out there in the world who are waiting for her to release the music.”
Will.i.am, an auto-racing aficionado, more recently dropped “The Formula” featuring Lil Wayne in May ahead of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.