I'm Good at Being Bad

"I'm Good at Being Bad" is a song recorded by American girl group TLC for their third album FanMail. It was released as a promotional single when "No Scrubs" was distributed to radio. Despite not being commercially released, the track peaked within the top 40 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song is characterized by its contrasting alternation of soft romantic melody and hard rap with explicit lyrics, as performed by Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and others of the group.

"I'm Good at Being Bad"
The three women are posing in front of a space background filled with stars. The band logo and song title are displayed on top in pink.
Promotional single by TLC
from the album FanMail
ReleasedJanuary 23, 1999
Recorded1998
StudioFlyte Tyme, Edina, Minnesota
Genre
Length
  • 5:25 (original clean version)
  • 5:39 (original explicit version)
  • 4:39 (re-edited album version)
LabelLaFace
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis

Background and composition

"I'm Good at Being Bad" is an R&B song containing a rap verse.[1] The song's original title was "Bitch Like Me" (a phrase also in the lyrics), which was described to "crank up the raunch level". The lyrics refer graphically to "Ten-inch or bigger / A lick-it-from-the-back-type nigga [sic]."[2]

It was recorded at Flyte Tyme Studios in Edina, Minnesota, with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis in 1998. While writing the song, member Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins was inspired by grunge band Nirvana's use of loud and soft dynamic shifts in their discography, which she wanted the group to incorporate.[1]

Jimmy Jam encouraged Watkins to hum the melody while playing the beat in the recording booth, which was different from her routine of listening to the beat and writing out the lyrics. Watkins admitted that the technique influenced her as a songwriter. She also attempted to convince Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes to rap the pre-chorus herself, but Lopes insisted that Watkins' thicker voice was better suited for the track.[1]

The original album version samples the Donna Summer song "Love to Love You Baby". Later pressings of the album removed the sample, shortening the song's length by a minute. The song also used a sample by American funk band War's 1972 song "Slippin' Into Darkness". Lopes' rap verse was included in the uncut version of the "Unpretty" music video.

Commercial performance

The song was distributed to radio stations as a promotional single during the release of their first single "No Scrubs" on January 23, 1999. On the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart dated July 3, 1999, "I'm Good at Being Bad" peaked at number 38, where it spent 18 weeks on the chart.[3]

Track listing

Charts
Chart (1999) Peak
position
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[3] 38

References
  1. Gracie, Bianca (February 22, 2019). "TLC's 'FanMail' Turns 20: A Track-By-Track Retrospective With the Girl Group and Behind-the-Scenes Collaborators". Billboard. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
  2. DeCurtis, Anthony (May 1999). "There The Hard Way" (Google Books). Vibe. Vol. 7, no. 4. SpinMedia. p. 84. ISSN 1070-4701. Retrieved November 28, 2016.
  3. "TLC Chart History (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs)". Billboard.
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