Yeah! (Usher Song) - Background

Background

In the fall of 2003, Usher submitted his fourth studio album, Confessions, to his record label Arista Records. However, when Usher and the company's then-president L.A. Reid listened to the songs, he felt the album lacked a song good enough to be released as the album's lead single. Although they had "Burn" as a candidate, Usher was told to record a few more tracks. Usher returned to the studio and enlisted American rapper-producer Lil Jon to produce songs for him. Lil Jon recalled: "He needed a single. They had 'Burn,' 'Burn' was hot, but they needed that first powerful monster. That's when I came in." Several months before Lil Jon came into the production of Confessions, he was commissioned by Jive Records to produce fifteen beats for rapper Mystikal. The rapper would only choose two tracks, which would give Lil Jon the chance to peddle the leftovers to other record labels. Without Lil Jon's knowledge, Jive Records gave one of the tracks that Mystikal passed on to hip hop artist Petey Pablo, who also records for the label. Lil Jon went to Pablo, who had already recorded the song, which later became "Freak-a-Leek". Lil Jon tried to settle it with Jive by making another beat for Pablo; however, Pablo did not give up the track, in light of the fact that it was already recorded and had been getting responses from Southern radio. Lil Jon comments, "With so much invested, Jive wouldn't give up the cut." Lil Jon reworked the track and a new instrumental was used, from which "Yeah!" was based.