Now, if you want to brag about being good in bed, that’s absolutely your prerogative but somehow, the more I hear this reference in songs… the less I believe it (except maybe from Drake and Chris Brown but that’s a personal preference *wink, wink*).
Obviously, most of these songs changed the bar to I’ll fuck you right I will, probably because Usher had to keep it clean (well, as clean as can be) for TV and radio. The first occurrence seems to come from Jay Z and Pharrell WIlliams in 2006, almost 10 years after the original.
Usher even used it again himself in 2008. Don’t believe me? I got a list, courtesy of, no less than 27 uses of the bar (it’s actually called an interpolation but I’ll spare you the technicalities), among others: Chris Brown – To My Bed (2017), Drake (featuring everyone) – Deuces remix (2010), Tory Lanez (2010 and again in 2019 in t he Trade, which is a Jermaine Dupri and Jagged Edge remix and a personal favorite of mine), Bryson Tiller, Jaquees and Trey Songz, Connor Maynard and plenty others. This song had become a cult classic and rappers who love to brag about their *ahem* skills wanted to use it to their advantage. The girls liked it and the men were taking notes. Never mind that he was only 17 when all this took place, the guy was gonna get pussy served on a silver platter for the next 20 years (and he knew it). To top it off, he croons “I’ll freak you right I will” swaying his hips a la Elvis Presley on a low angle shot ( read his crotch looks supersized on screen), making direct eye contact with the camera and to this day, I get all flushed when I watch. Usher is a good-looking fella as we know, more so even when he appeared shirtless in most of his videos, flashing his washboard abs and his baby face making all the girls (and many guys I’m sure) swoon. I mean, I wouldn’t kick him out of bedĪ little context: Brian Casey of the boy band Jagged Edge co-wrote Nice & Slow, produced by Atlanta then up-and-coming producer Jermaine Dupri, and the video was directed by Hype Williams. It seems not a year goes by without some male artist throwing this bar around somewhere. It is because this is one of the most sampled lyrics in hip hop and R’n’B. Why are we talking about this song? Is it because it topped the charts in 1998 when it came out? Is it because it absolutely embodies ‘90s classic R’n’B? Is it because this is the song that pretty much cemented Usher as a sex symbol? Nope. If you’re around my age (no judgment) or like old school R’n’B, you know these lyrics are from Nice & Slow, a languid Usher song from his debut album My Way.
I’ll freak you, freak you like no one has ever made you feel I’ll freak you right, I will / I’ll freak you right, I will