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"Goodies" is a song performed by American recording artist Ciara. Featuring rapper Petey Pablo, the song was written by Ciara, Sean Garrett, LaMarquis Jefferson, and Craig Love, while Lil Jon produced the song. It serves as her debut single, and the lead single from her debut album, Goodies. The song's conception come through a need for producer Lil Jon to have a female crunk counterpart to Usher's "Yeah" (2004) and Petey Pablo's "Freek-a-Leek" (2004). In addition to crunk, the song includes hip-hop, and R&B, and pop Initially disliking the song along with crunk music, Ciara used the unlikely track to deliver abstinence-promoting and female-empowering lyrics. Noted as one of Ciara's signature songs, it makes use of her breathy vocal style in a rap-style delivery. Critics embraced the song's ironic lyrics considering the production and Ciara's sexed image,
"Goodies" peaked at number one in the United States, remaining in the top position for seven weeks. It also topped the charts in Canada, and the United Kingdom, as well as charting in the top ten of several additional territories.
Background
editAfter producer Jazze Pha signed Ciara to his Sho'nuff label, he said that the industry was lacking Janet Jackson-esque "high-energy dance [music]." Ciara then began writing a song with producer Sean Garrett, a co-writer of Usher's crunk hit "Yeah." After hearing a demo of the track, producer Lil Jon began to work with the record. He used the title of "Queen of Crunk R&B" to help the singer stand out of the crowd. Originally, Ciara was reluctant to work with the track produced by Lil Jon, reportedly at disliking crunk music at first. However, she decided to use the song to go against the grain and deliver lyrics in contrast of female promiscuity lines delivered by fellow female artists. Dubbed the female counterpart to "Yeah" and fellow crunk hit "Freek-a-Leek" by Petey Pablo, it looked to capitalize on the success of the previous songs.
Composition
edit"Goodies" is a crunk&B song, which incorporates dance-pop and hip-hop elements. Jason Birchmeir of Allmusic said that the song was "fairly similar" to the other Lil Jon-produced songs released in the summer of 2004, including "Yeah!," "Freek-a-Leek" Trillville's "Neva Eva," Lil Scrappy's "No Problem," Pitbull's "Culo," but the track was sung by a "young girl."
On the lyrics Birchmeir said the song was an "apparent response" to "Freek-a-Leek", commenting that it employed a "near-identical beat and the services of that song's rapper, Petey Pablo." While Pablo's song was described as a "hardcore rap approach to courtship," Ciara takes a contemporary R&B perspective, "boasting contrarily that she has what all the guys want but won't be exploited," in lyrics such as "I bet you want the goodies/Bet you thought about it/Got you all hot and bothered/Mad 'cause I talk around it/If you're looking for the goodies/Keep on looking 'cause they stay in the jar."
Critical reception
editCommenting on Ciara's rise as a competitor for Beyonce as the female voice in hip-hop, Azeem Ahmad of musicOMH, said that Petey Pablo's verse undermined any point the song was trying to make, but the the song as a whole "more than makes up in terms of quality music."Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).