| "Better Not Waste My Time" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by N-Dubz | ||||
| from the album Uncle B | ||||
| Released | 19 August 2006 | |||
| Format | Digital download, CD single | |||
| Recorded | 2006 | |||
| Genre | British hip hop, Grime | |||
| Length | 3:40 | |||
| Label | Polydor | |||
| Writer(s) | Richard Rawson, Dino Contostavlos, Tulisa Contostavlos | |||
| Producer | Dino Constostavlos, Richard Rawson, Jack Freegard | |||
| N-Dubz singles chronology | ||||
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"You Better Not Waste My Time" also known as "Better Not Waste My Time" is the debut single by English MOBO-award winning hip-hop group N-Dubz. It was released on 19 August 2006 as a digital download only single, whilst the group was still self-funded. It was then later re-released on 22 October 2007, this time with a physical release and under the group's new record label at the time - Polydor Records. The single was later featured on N-Dubz's Platinum-selling debut album Uncle B which was released in November 2008.
Contents |
"You Better Not Waste My Time" is a mid-paced track which features an upbeat rhythm consisting of lightly placed keys, horns and strong bass. It is both written and produced by the group and Jack Freegard.[1] The song features vocals and rapping by all three of N-Dubz's members: Dappy, Tulisa and Fazer. The song's intro and chorus are rapped by Dappy and Tulisa is involved in the backing vocals and reply verse of the song. The song then ends off with a verse rapped by Fazer. The general theme of the song is about growing up, the difficulties of it and how to use it to make you stronger. The lyrics involve stereotyping and the discriminating of "untalented" scholars or kids who never completed their school career. Examples of this include Dappy's verse "Just because I neva went to school don't mean I can't be perfect".[2] Tulisa's reply verse involves the difficulty that girls face during their school years and how jealousy more often than not results in conflict in competitive situations at school with lyrics such as "So much hate, lies an deceit" describing the extent of the conflict of these situations between girls at school. The second half of the song is aimed inspiring the song's listener, from the personal experience of the group, to not take notice of the difficulties of life but rather to rise above it despite what people say. An example of this is found in the line "I love my Nike Air, but now movin onto Gucci and Prada". The single was released and re-released before making the group's debut album, "Uncle B" and therefore didn't have an effect on the album's sales which were first boosted by the group's later single "Ouch" in 2008. The re-release of the song featured a significantly shorter version of the original; the re-release version being 03:30 long and the original 05:10. Tulisa's view on the re-release of the song:
I think re-releasing "Better Not Waste My Time" was a mistake Polydor made because they weren't aiming at our main fanbase, they were reaching out for a new fanbase. It did gain us new fans, but at the same time, we missed out on how many thousands of fans we already had, because we didn't bring out a fresh track.[3]
"You Better Not Waste My Time" is featured as the second track on N-Dubz's setlist for their Uncle B Tour.[4]
Inthenews.co.uk: "You Better Not Waste My Time reflects N-Dubz's excellent credentials; a hook-driven gem with a conscious edge"[5] Citylife.co.uk: also positively backed the song saying: "You Better Not Waste My Time has a sense of urgency about it and gets right in your head within seconds. What lifts this track though is the combination of rap with superb vocals", overall describing the song as a "slickly produced track with a central hook to die for".[6]
N-Dubz created two music videos for "You Better Not Waste My Time". The first and original video was self-funded by the group by themselves but as part of the single's re-release promotion under Polydor Records a new video was remade, making it the second and official music video for the track. The first was uploaded onto YouTube on 15 March 2007; as of 12 June 2009 this video has been viewed 1,355,108 times. The second was uploaded onto YouTube on 22 September 2007, also on 12 June 2009; this video has so far been viewed 1,456,804 times. The first video is 5:18 long; the second video is considerably shorter at 3:40 long. The first video features Dappy in a series of comic costumes and all three members performing in a pool. The explicit version of the song is used in this version of the video. The second video starts off with a dancer dancing in the dark, then Dappy lighting a match. He then throws it away and you see that all members of N-Dubz are sitting on the floor. Dappy gets up and walks off, stage lights turn off and shows that some dancers are performing. It then goes pitch black and all you can see is Dappy. It then shows a person screaming on stage, then a ninja jumps down, then Dappy sits on a chair and gets touched up. Then it shows all three members of N-Dubz dancing together, then it goes pitch black and all you can see is Tulisa, then the stage lights turn on and you can see the performance on stage. Then it goes close to Tulisa who is sitting down, then she walks off, she joins the rest of N-Dubz, then it goes pitch black. Tulisa and Dappy walk off and you can only see Fazer, he then walks off. The stage lights come on and you can see the performance again, but then it goes dark. Then it shows Dappy with a teddy bear. Then it shows N-Dubz performing together, then it ends with them performing and the dancers dancing around them. Despite the single's limited commercial release in 2006, the music video spent seven weeks at #1 on the UK's Channel U.[7]
"You Better Not Waste My Time" first entered the UK Singles Chart in 2006, at #141. During the re-release of the single in 2007, "You Better Not Waste My Time" re-entered the singles chart at #96 on 27 October 2007 - making it the group's third Top 100 hit, following previous singles "Feva Las Vegas" and "I Swear". The following week, the song climbed 70 places to #26, where it peaked and provided N-Dubz with their first of five top 30 hits on the UK Singles Chart so far. The other four hit singles being, "Ouch", "Papa Can You Hear Me?", "Strong Again" and "Number 1". The single spent its last week on the UK Singles Chart on 24 November 2007 at #87. Accumilatively spending a total of five weeks in the top 100[8] and three weeks in the top 75 of the chart.[9]
| Chart (2007) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles (The Official Charts Company)[10] | 26 |
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