"I'm Not Havin' It" is a song by American rappers Positive K and

MC Lyte Lana Michele Moorer (born October 11, 1970), better known by her stage name MC Lyte, is an American rap music, rapper, Disc jockey, DJ, actress and entrepreneur. Considered one of the pioneers of female rap, Lyte first gained fame in the late 19 ...

. It was included on the 1988 compilation album '' The First Priority Music Family: Basement Flavor'' and released as a single the following year. The B-side "A Good Combination", by Positive K as solo artist, is the main song in some versions of the single. Produced by rap duo Audio Two, on the song Positive K and Lyte have a rapping conversation in which she rejects his persistent courtship attempts. Although Lyte had already charted outside the United States thanks to her collaboration with Irish singer

Sinéad O'Connor Shuhada Sadaqat (born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor on 8 December 1966; ) is an Irish singer-songwriter. Her debut album, '' The Lion and the Cobra'', was released in 1987 and charted internationally. Her second album, ''I Do Not Want Wha ...

on " I Want Your (Hands on Me)", with this song they both got their first appearance on a Billboard chart, peaking to 16 of the

Hot Rap Singles Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by ''Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stat ...

in September of that year. In January 2019 they recorded a second version of the song.MC Lyte & Positive K Revamp A Classic With "I'm Still Not Havin' It" Video
''

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The website's current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the Head Of Content is Jerry L. Barrow. ''HipHopDX'' is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group. ...

''. Accessed on August 28, 2019.

Conception and composition

Considered a safe-sex manifesto, in the song Positive K insistently tries to woo Lyte, who rejects him on the grounds that ''"guys are running games, like the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associa ...

"'', ''"guys like you just wanna hit and run"'' and ''"There's just certain things you don't understand baby/Every woman wants to be treated like a lady"''. On the hook of the song Positive K tells Lyte ''"Excuse me miss"'', to which she replies ''"No, I'm not havin' it"''. As Positive K explained to ''

Village People Village People is an American disco group known for its on-stage costumes and suggestive lyrics in their music. The group was originally formed by French producers Jacques Morali, Henri Belolo and lead singer Victor Willis following the rel ...

'', at the time of creating the song "wanted to do something in rap that had never been seen before" and his main inspiration was the duets he grew up listening to such as

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown (music style), Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player ...

and Tammi Terrell and

Lionel Richie Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of funk band the Commodores; writing and recor ...

and

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...

's " Endless Love". In August 1991, regarding the content of songs like I'm Not Havin' It and Please Understand, Lyte told Deborah Gregory in an ''

Essence Essence ( la, essentia) is a polysemic term, used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property or set of properties that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it ...

'' interview "I’ve never let a man dog me and I never will, It’s just not gonna happen!". When asked about the recording of the song in a subsequent interview, Positive K responded "Always energentic! We were in the studio all the time! The vibe was great!!" In a 2018 interview for ''Weekly Rap Gods'' Positive K described the song as "the Adam and Eve of hip hop duos" and that it "set the tone for hip hop" in the work of other artists such as " Doin' It" by

LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, along ...

and " You're All I Need to Get By" by

Method Man Clifford Smith, Jr. (born March 2, 1971), better known by his stage name Method Man, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is known as a member of the East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He is also half of ...

and Mary J Blige.

Samples

"I'm Not Havin' It" is built around a sample of Teddy Pendergrass's "

Turn Off the Lights "Turn Off the Lights" was a hit for R&B crooner Teddy Pendergrass, released as a single on June 23, 1979. Released from his hit album, ''Teddy,'' the song hit No. 48 on the Pop charts and No. 2 on the R&B charts. The song was also a b-side s ...

". The song also samples the hook from " Yes We Can Can" by

Pointer Sisters The Pointer Sisters are an American pop and R&B singing group from Oakland, California, that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, jazz, electronic music, bebop, blu ...

Appearances

I'm Not Havin' It was used in

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immu ...

prevention public service announcements and in the

Rock the Vote Rock the Vote is a non-profit progressive-aligned organization in the United States whose stated mission is "to engage and build the political power of young Americans." The organization was founded in 1990 by Virgin Records America Co-Chairman ...

campaign. Positive K would once again use the concept of 'I'm Not Havin' It for his 1992 hit " I Got a Man", in which Positive K wanted to collaborate with Lyte again, but could not do so due to his record label change. He also interpolates some of his lines in the song: in I Got a Man says ''"Ya better catch a flashback/Remember I'm not crabbin it/You know my style/From I'm Not Havin It"'', in reference to the line that says ''"But I'm all the way live, but I'm definitely not crabbing"''. Also says ''"C'mon I'm clean, cut, and dapper, you got to admit that"'' in reference to the fourth verse ''"Well, I'm clean cut and dapper, that's what I'm about"''. In 1995 it was sampled by

The Roots The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's '' The Tonight Show Starring Jimm ...

on the track "You Ain't Fly" from their second album '' Do You Want More?!!!??!'' In 2003 the song was included in Lyte's compilation album ''The Shit I Never Dropped''. In January 2019, 30 years after its publication, Lyte collaborated on the Positive K single "I'm Still Not Havin 'It", which is a continuation of the original version. "I find it incredible that after 30 years MC Lyte and I haven’t skipped a beat” Positive K said in a press release. “We have just as much chemistry now as we did then. A duet album would be phenomenal." Lyte added, "Working with him is easy and effortless. The music from ‘Still Not Having It’ is one of my favorite songs from

Bill Withers William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He had several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), " Use Me" (1972) ...

. It takes me back and with the subject matter Pos created, makes it MO Betta."

Critical reception

In July 1990,

black feminist Black feminism is a philosophy that centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently valuable, that lack women'sliberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because our need as human persons for autonomy." Race, gend ...

author and

cultural critic A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social theory, social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the socia ...

Michele Wallace wrote about the song in a note for the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', later included in her book ''Dark Designs and Visual Culture'' (2004), in which she commented that in their dialogue Positive K and Lyte "comes down hard on the notion that women can’t say no, and criticizes the shallowness of the male rap." In October 1996 Jon Shecter of ''

Vibe ''Vibe'' is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producers David Salzman and Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down production ...

'' called the song a forerunner of male and female duets in hip hop, highlighting when Positive K says "Excuse me, miss ..." on the hook as its most memorable part. In 2018,

The Boombox Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...

's Naima Cochrane commented on Positive K about her lyrics in Im not Havin'It and I Got a Man "despite his name, specialized in what could be called ''street harassment hip-hop.''"

Track listing

7" Vinyl

A-Side # "I'm Not Havin' It" (3:29) #*MC Lyte And Positive K B-Side # "A Good Combination" (3:53) #*Positive K

Personnel

Credits are taken from the liner notes. *Engineer – Milk Dee (pistas: A) *Producer – Audio Two, Positive K (track: B), Shaun Thomas (track: B) *Written By – MC Lyte (track: A), Positive K

Charts

References

{{MC Lyte 1989 singles MC Lyte songs 1989 songs Atlantic Records singles Male–female vocal duets Songs written by MC Lyte