Will.i.am. Talks Working With Britney Spears, Her Song That Inspired the Black Eyed Peas, More New Music, the Conservatorship & More

On questions about “Mind Your Business,” including if it’s an old song and if Britney is really singing on it…

“They ask, when did I record this with Britney? And is that really Britney on it? Yes, it is. When did I record it? That’s not important,” he said, mentioning he also held onto a song with Shakira for a while. “Not everything should be instant. If you want to make great wine, there’s no such thing as instant wine. Intoxication on anything that you consume takes a while. S-it’s gotta sit around for a minute … fine-tune it, perfect it.”

Elsewhere he discussed working on the song with Britney, who shares a writing credit. “As far as writing, we wrote it together. We’d meet up for lunch sessions in the Valley, talk about life, I’d take notes about what we discussed. She’d ask to change this, change that. She’s the first person I wrote like that with – let’s just sit and chat about life, love, news, pop culture products. Just talk… I’d show her song structures, rhymes, metaphors. She’d shape and edit the lyrics,” he explained.

He added that Britney also wanted ot change the beat to “something hip-hop, sparse and half-time” where the song was initially “all dance.”