I Hate U

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“I Hate U”
“I Hate U” cover
UK 12" single
Single by Prince
from the album The Gold Experience
B-side "I Hate U" (Quiet Night Mix by Eric Leeds) (7")
"Endorphinmachine" (Japan CD)
Released 12 September 1995
Format 7" single
12" single
Cassette single
CD single
CD maxi-single
Recorded Paisley Park Studios, September 1993–1994
Genre Pop, Rock, Ballad
Length 7" edit: 4:27
Album: 5:58
Extended Remix: 6:17
Label Warner Bros. Records/NPG Records
Writer(s) Prince
Producer Prince, Ricky Peterson
Prince singles chronology
"Purple Medley"
(1995)		 "I Hate U"
(1995)		 "Gold"
(1995)

"I Hate U" (also spelled Eye Hate U) is a song by Prince from his 1995 album The Gold Experience. The track was the lead single in support of the album, released on 12 September, 1995. "I Hate U" was nearly a solo effort from Prince, although he credited Minneapolis musician Ricky Peterson with co-production and arranging, as well as providing additional keyboards.

Beginning with crashing drums, the "NPG Operator" welcomes the listener to "The Hate Experience" (which Prince would later entitle the song's maxi-single), before leading into the first verse where Prince sings in delicate falsetto about a cheating woman, whom he hates "like a day without sunshine". A church-like organ moves the song along, while a musical segment borrowed from "Baby" (a track from his 1978 album For You) provides breaks throughout the track. After the second verse and chorus, the song enters a lengthy middle section which sung/spoken in Prince's normal voice. This section is a "courtroom drama" where Prince submits his evidence of his cheating lover to a judge. When he asks the woman to state her name for the court, he interrupts her with a sample from the album's previous track — "Billy Jack Bitch". Toward the end of the drama, he states that being without her is killing him emotionally and that he actually still loves her. After a final chorus, again using an impassioned falsetto, Prince launches into a brief but effective guitar solo which climaxes and ends the song.

Contents

[edit] Chart Performance

"I Hate U" is, to date, Prince's last original single to reach the U.S. Top 40. (His earlier hit, "1999" did sneak back into the Top 40 in the song's namesake year, peaking at #40, but this was a reissued single, not a new release and in 1996 "Betcha By Golly Wow" from "Emancipation" made the Top 40, but all of the singles from Emancipation were promotional in the U.S. so they were not allowed to chart on the Hot 100 only on the Hot 100 Airplay). "I Hate U" was very successul on the charts it peaked within the top 10 R&B/Hip-Hop & Rhythmic Charts & it reaced #12 on The Billboard Hot 100, unlike the last couple of Prince's singles, "I Hate U" was not successful on Mainstream/Top 40 radio as it didn't chart on the Top 40 Mainstream. In the U.K. "I Hate U" peaked at #20

[edit] Charts

Chart (1994) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 12
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 3
U.S. Billboard Rhythmic Top 40 9
UK Singles Chart 20

[edit] Music Video

There is an unreleased video circulating amongst Prince collectors of this single. It features Myte dancing in some shots and Prince telling Myte off in the courtroom, Michael Bland (part of the New power generation) as the judge.

[edit] B-sides/remixes

The single's B-side was a instrumental "Quiet Night Mix" of "I Hate U" featuring long-time collaborator Eric Leeds on saxophone. A maxi-single on CD and vinyl included several remixes of the track. The most notable was an extended remix which omitted the "courtroom drama" and featured Prince delivering much more personal lyrics. A rumor at the time was that the lyrics of this version referred to Carmen Electra whom Prince had worked with and dated for a time. Other versions of the song were various edits. The Japanese CD single was unique in that it included the album version of "Endorphinmachine" as an extra track.


[edit] External links

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