Ariana Grande’s ‘Break Up With Your Girlfriend’ is currently sitting in the number two spot on the Billboard charts and while fans are completely obsessed with this record (and for good reason), you might have overlooked one little factor: Ariana and her team of writers drew inspiration from a boy band we love oh so much, NSYNC and their song ‘It Makes Me Ill.’

 

 

‘It Makes Me Ill’ was off of NSYNC’s album released in 2000 called No Strings Attached and because of the songs lyrics, it’s been a fan favourite, at least that’s what Billboard claims.  And where did Ariana get this inspiration from? Check out the lyrics from both songs below – the lines in bold are crazy similar.

 

 

NSYNC / IT MAKES ME ILL

Call me a hater, if you want to 
But I only hate on him ’cause I want you 
Say I’m trippin’ if you feel like 
But you without me ain’t right 
You can say I’m crazy, if you want to 
That’s true, I’m crazy ’bout you 
You could say I’m breakin’ down inside 
‘Cause I can’t see you with another guy

 

ARIANA GRANDE / BREAK UP WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND, I’M BORED

You could say I’m hatin’ if you want to
But I only hate on her ’cause I want you
Say I’m trippin’ if you feel like
But you without me ain’t right (Ain’t right)
You could call me crazy ’cause I want you
And I never even ever f****n met you
Say I’m trippin’ and it ain’t right
But you without me ain’t nice (Ain’t nice, yeah)

 

NSYNC’s ‘It Makes Me Ill’ was co-written and produced by Kandi Burruss and Kevin Briggs.  Kandi had a chance to talk with Billboard about ‘Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored’ and how she felt when Ariana wanted to sample an NSYNC song.

 

 

BB: How did Ariana Grande’s team contact you about wanting to sample *NSYNC’s “It Makes Me Ill”?

KB: “I’ve known her manager Scooter Braun for years, way before he became a manager, [back to] when he was an intern for Jermaine Dupri at So So Def. It’s crazy how things come full circle with people that you’ve worked with over the years. So he reached out to let me know that they had sampled the song and they wanted to work out the publishing split. You can imagine that I was super excited about it! I was really happy. I’m thankful to the writers.”

 

 

BB: What was your reaction when you heard how she flipped the song?

KB: “[The label] had sent me a link to the song to hear it. I thought it was so dope. I would’ve never thought anybody would have sampled “It Makes Me Ill” after all these years. I actually went and met with [“Break Up” co-writer Savan Kotecha] afterwards, who’s an amazing writer and producer.”

 

 

BB: Out of all the *NSYNC hits to choose from, why do you think she chose this deep cut?

KB: “I don’t know, but I know they love that era of music and [Kotecha] told me he always loved that song. But I have no idea what made them use that part for the track! But I’m definitely thankful that they used a song that I’ve written. That was one of my favourite songs that I did back in the day, but it never was an official single for *NSYNC. So you never really expect songs that weren’t the big single to really go on and do other things. But this is a major thing. I’m shocked! And to come out of the [Celebrity] Big Brother house after a month of being stuck in that house to another hit record is just…wow! Things are really looking bright for me right now.”

 

 

BB: What was your experience working with *NSYNC on the song?

KB: “I loved working with *NSYNC. That was one of my best experiences back then. They were all funny, and they were quick in the studio. They were all really great and easy as far as recording them; it wasn’t like we had to do a lot of tricks or anything with their voices. They were just amazing singers and artists. Even though they were successful, they were very cool and down to earth.  We had a lot of fun that day. I remember Justin [Timberlake] was talking to me and said, “You know what? You need to come up with a name for your style of rapping! It’s like you’re rapping, but it’s a melody… maybe you should call it mapping!” I was like, “Uh NO!””

 

 

BB: Why do you think “It Makes Me Ill” still resonates with fans almost 20 years later?

KB: “I remember I went to one of their concerts where they performed it, and people were going crazy over it. They had thought about making it a single at one time, but it never happened. Every time I mention that I worked with *NSYNC on “It Makes Me Ill,” [people react] like “Oh my god, I love that song!” I didn’t even realize that many people liked that song on the album. But that was a really great album for them.”

Filed under: ariana-grande, nsync