“It’s Fun, Campy, and Edgy”; Britney Spears on Her New Song With Will.i.am

“Mind your business, bitch.” So Britney Spears purrs on her new single with will.i.am, aptly titled “Mind Your Business.” Released today, the electro-pop dance track is already garnering chatter online, given it’s one of Spears’s first musical endeavors since her 2016 album Glory (she also released “Hold Me Closer” with Elton John last summer). 

As it turns out, the song was mined from the duo’s archives. “Will is an incredible artist and partner,” Spears tells Vogue. “We worked on this song years ago, and it was time re-produce it and share it with my incredible fans.” The track originally stemmed from a conversation the two stars were having about fame, and the lack of privacy that often comes with it. “Every single person, famous and not, has their privacy invaded in some shape or form in this digital age,” says will.i.am. “It’s a sentiment for the times, so we should be more humane to each other, respect and have empathy for each other, and be thankful for what people choose to share publicly. If people don’t want to share, we need to respect their right not to share, and to have a private life.”

It’s not the first track will.i.am and Spears have released together. “Working with her is like teaming up with a kindred spirit: We both love music and the art of expressing ourselves,” says will.i.am. They first collaborated on 2011’s “Big Fat Bass,” and followed that up with their 2013 club-ready banger “Scream & Shout” and “It Should Be Easy.” With “Mind Your Business,” the pair wanted to bring some of that 2010s lighthearted-pop energy into the present. “We went back and forth on making the song more current, and adding a heavy base and choir to it,” says Spears. “It’s fun, campy, and edgyâ€"a perfect song for the summer.” Will.i.am adds, “Britney had some great input about the music, to add hip-hop elements that we incorporated into the final track.”

And it’s the perfect moment for a new Spears single, given the ongoing fan and media speculation about her life since the end of her conservatorship in 2021. Her message to the world is clear in the song: “Mind your B, mind your B, mind your B,” Spears sings, poking fun at the relentless public fascination around her. “Uptown, downtown, everywhere I turn around; Hollywood, London, snap-snap is the sound; paparazzi shot me, I am the economy.” (Her desire for privacy is a theme Spears also explored in her anti-tabloid hit “Piece of Me” back in 2007.) “If you are a person like Britney who can’t even go to the supermarket without cameras or someone wanting to know every single step she takes, that’s horrible,” says will.i.am. “Everyone can relate to their privacy being underminedâ€"and that’s ‘Mind Your Business.’”< /p>

Is minding your business not a perfect summer mood, though? Summer, after all, is about drinking margaritas, laying out in the sun, and living a carefree lifestyle. In the case of our legendary Princess of Popâ€"who recently announced that her memoir, The Woman in Me, will be out in Octoberâ€"more people should definitely be minding their business; let her live, post her epic Instagram dance sequences, and carry out her tropical vacations in peace. Still, Spears says the release of her new pop track is dedicated to all of her beloved fans. “I love my fans more than anything,” she says, “and hope they love the song, too!” They clearly do: It’s already climbing the charts.