December 25, 2024

Future Tells The Surprising Story Behind ‘Drunk In Love’

By Adam Fleischer, with reporting by Sway Calloway

He created some of the melodies on Beyoncé‘s smash “Drunk in Love,” but Future‘s name doesn’t appear anywhere in the song’s credits. How does something like that happen?

It has a lot to do with the song’s producer, Detail, Future told MTV News.

The producer, who has worked frequently with the Atlanta rapper, had the beat for what would become “Drunk in Love” and wanted Future to lay some vocals. (Detail he thought Bey would see the potential in the song if she heard the hit-maker on it.) The Freebandz MC was game.

“I know the direction people think she was gonna go,” he told MTV News’ Sway Calloway. “And for you to have ‘Drunk in Love,’ it’s a whole ‘nother direction; it’s like, that young and fresh. She do this, it’s over. I was excited about it.”

A few days later, Detail called Future to say that Queen Bey was in the booth, working on the song. That only got the Epic Records signee even more enthused.

Then, as he worked on his sophomore album, Honest, which hit stores on Tuesday, Future used the same melody he had created for “Drunk in Love” on a track called “Good Morning,” which was also produced by Detail. “‘Drunk in Love’ didn’t come out for about six, seven months,” he explained. “‘Good Morning’ [was] finished; done.”

When Beyoncé dropped her album in December, Future was just as surprised as the singer’s fans.

“I was like, ‘What I’mma do with ‘Good Morning’ now? This one of our favorite songs,” he wondered. To add to the confusion, he didn’t hear from Detail. “It was like, ‘Man, why wouldn’t you tell me?’”

Months earlier, the two had been in the studio, and Future played his Miley Cyrus-assisted “Real and True.” The producer wanted to work out a deal. “He was like, ‘Give me some publishing off ‘Real and True,’ and I’ll give you some publishing off ‘Drunk in Love.’ This [is] six months afterwards.”

Future declined the tradeoff, and was perplexed by the behavior in general, given their past working relationship. “We ain’t have no problem with ‘Tapout,’” he said, referencing their collaboration on the Rich Gang single. “We ain’t have no problem with the B.o.B record. We ain’t have no problem with the Flo Rida record. But as soon as ‘Drunk in Love’ come, you switch up.”

The lack of communication and general handling of the record caused tension for a bit. “Good Morning” was ultimately scrapped from Honest, and “Drunk in Love” became the chart-topping hit it is.

“It didn’t affect our relationship right now, [but] it was on my mind a lot at the time,” Future said, adding that he spoke with Detail recently, and the past is the past. “I moved on from it, because I understand the bigger picture. We make too much great music together.”

About the author  ⁄ MTV News Staff

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