Lay Bankz stopped by Genius to discuss her breakout hit “Tell Ur Girlfriend.” The Johnny Goldstein produced track is featured on her debut album, After 7. The song topped Billboard’s TikTok Top 50 chart for several weeks and marked Lay Bankz’s first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 58. On today’s episode of Verified, the Philadelphia native opens up about a time in her life when she and someone close to her both fell for each other while in other relationships.
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MusicTranscript
00:00When you want somebody and when you can't fight this feeling, it's like Cupid just come
00:05out of nowhere.
00:06Bam, shot you in your butt.
00:14I'm always the girl that you can expect to talk about real life experiences in her music.
00:19I went in with the idea and Johnny Goldstein played me this crazy synth.
00:25It was like, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.
00:29And there was no drums, no snaps, no nothing, but I'm just hearing it in my head.
00:32I'm like, oh my God, this is what I'm looking for.
00:38I'm about to slide on this mother fucker.
00:42And I jumped on the mic after that, it just came naturally.
00:45The lyrics was just so easy because I already knew what I wanted to say.
00:48Just creating Tell Your Girlfriend, I knew I wanted to make a song that felt like Brandy
01:04and Timbaland and still stuck with me, like who I am.
01:08The first verse was really just like, originally I wouldn't do none of the shit that I'm talking
01:13about in a song.
01:14I just wouldn't.
01:15But I just can't help myself, the heart want what it want.
01:18And initially I wouldn't do this, Hennessy pouring and shit getting fluid.
01:22We was just friends, but then came in Cupid.
01:24The tension was building, we had to pursue it.
01:26Full transparency, I fell in love with somebody real close to me.
01:30When you want somebody and when you can't fight this feeling, it's like Cupid just come
01:36out of nowhere, bam, shot you in your butt.
01:38And now it's like, what am I supposed to do?
01:42I love this person, I want this person, we friends, but I don't want to be your friend
01:46no more.
01:48Tell em, tell em, tell em, tell em, what it's been with us this whole time.
01:53Tell em, tell em, what if I let your girl find out.
01:57Tell em, tell em, what if she was to go tell mine.
02:02Cause I don't want to live a lie, lie, lie.
02:05It's like a whisper, like somebody in the air like, tell em, tell em, tell em, tell
02:09em.
02:10That's how I was envisioning it when I did it.
02:11I have to tell this person and I gotta tell everybody, but like how?
02:18Should tell my boyfriend what I been doing.
02:23Been thinking of you, every time I screw him.
02:27And if you want me, you gotta put the word in.
02:31Go tell your girlfriend that I'm your girlfriend.
02:35At this point in the song, I'm fed up.
02:37I don't want to do this back and forth bullshit no more.
02:41So it's either you going to be here or you going to be there.
02:45If you going to be there, go ahead.
02:47If not, make that statement.
02:49Put the word in.
02:50Tell your girlfriend I'm your girlfriend.
03:00We can keep it low key for right now, but I'm still focusing on me.
03:04So I'ma still do you, but I'ma still do me while I'm doing you.
03:09But I already knew that I had a grip on him, figuratively and literally.
03:17Got you running back to back, came three times.
03:19Now I'm kissing on your neck, that's a sweet spot.
03:21But if we freaking, I need you to say it.
03:23It only take one bitch to start hating.
03:25Honestly, I had this motherfucker coming back, leaving, coming back, leaving, and I was leaving,
03:32coming back.
03:33How could you ever leave me if I'm the only one to keep you coming?
03:36When you dealing with somebody who is trying to keep you a secret, but you not no back
03:40burner ass bitch and I ain't the person that you're going to keep a secret.
03:43All these people, who are you lying to because it's not me.
03:47So at this point, I'm really fed up.
03:49I'm just not going to fuck with you no more.
03:51And I'ma write a hit about it.
03:55We literally went so ham on that ending because we wanted it to have that 2000s feel.
04:01The approach was really just punching all these different melodies and all these different
04:05harmonies over top of what already existed.
04:07And I think my favorite part about that ending is the, maybe we should tell him I'm screwing.
04:13The way that I hear it in my head is just amazing.
04:16When you take the record apart and just understand what went into that ending, it's amazing.
04:23You will love it just as much as I do.