"I'm Good at Being Bad" is a song recorded by American

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

for their third album ''

FanMail ''FanMail'' is the third studio album by American girl group TLC, released on February 23, 1999, by LaFace and Arista Records. The album title is a tribute to TLC's fans who sent them fan mail during their hiatus. ''FanMail'' debuted at number ...

''. It was released as a

promotional single A promotional recording, or promo, or plug copy, is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as ...

when "

No Scrubs "No Scrubs" is a song recorded by American girl group TLC as the lead single from their third studio album, ''FanMail'', on February 2, 1999, by LaFace Records and Arista Records. The song was written by producer Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs, forme ...

" was distributed to radio. Despite not being commercially released, the track peaked within the top 40 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

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 Tionne Tenese Watkins (born April 26, 1970), better known by her stage name T-Boz, is an American singer and actress. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Watkins rose to fame in the early 1990s as a member of the girl-group TLC. She has won four Grammy A ...

and others of the group.

Background and composition

"I'm Good at Being Bad" is an R&B song containing a

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

verse Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry * Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...

. 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 ''Nigga'' () is a colloquial and vulgar term used in African-American Vernacular English that began as a dialect form of the word ''nigger'', an ethnic slur against black people. The word is commonly associated with hip hop music and Afric ...

." It was recorded at Flyte Tyme Studios in

Edina, Minnesota Edina ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States and a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. The population was 53,494 at the 2020 census, making it the 18th most populous city in Minnesota. Edina began as a small farming and mil ...

, with producers

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III (born June 6, 1959) and Terry Steven Lewis (born November 24, 1956) are an American R&B/pop songwriting and record production team. They have enjoyed great success since the 1980s with various artists, most ...

in 1998. While writing the song, member

was inspired by

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...

band

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

's use of loud and soft dynamic shifts in their discography, which she wanted the group to incorporate. 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. The original album version samples the

Donna Summer LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the " Queen of Disco", while her mus ...

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 Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

band War's 1972 song "

Slippin' Into Darkness "Slippin' into Darkness" is a song written and performed in 1971 by War. The song was produced by Jerry Goldstein. A live version of the song was featured as the B-side to their 1974 single "Ballero". Background This song is an unusual blues form ...

". Lopes' rap verse was included in the uncut version of the "

Unpretty "Unpretty" is a song by American group TLC, released on May 17, 1999, through LaFace and Arista Records as the second single from the band's third studio album, ''FanMail''. It was written by Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and the producer Dallas Austi ...

" music video.

Commercial performance

The song was distributed to radio stations as a

during the release of their first single "

" on January 23, 1999. On the ''

chart dated July 3, 1999, "I'm Good at Being Bad" peaked at number 38, where it spent 18 weeks on the chart.

Track listing

Promotional US

mini CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...

and

maxi single A maxi single or maxi-single (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song. The first maxi singles Mungo Jerry's first single, "In the Summertime" was the ...

# "I'm Good at Being Bad" (Radio Mix with rap) – 4:33 # "I'm Good at Being Bad" (Radio Mix without rap) – 4:33 # "I'm Good at Being Bad" (Instrumental) – 4:36 # "I'm Good at Being Bad" (Call Out Research Hook) – 0:10 Promotional US

12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

# "I'm Good at Being Bad" (dirty version) – 4:39 # "I'm Good at Being Bad" (clean version) – 4:42 # "I'm Good at Being Bad" (instrumental) – 4:35

Charts

References

{{authority control 1999 singles TLC (group) songs Songs written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Songs written by Lisa Lopes Songs written by Tionne Watkins Songs written by Giorgio Moroder Song recordings produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis LaFace Records singles Arista Records singles Songs written by Donna Summer 1998 songs Trip hop songs