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Usher and Alicia Keys’ hit song “my boo” is one of the more popular love songs. And it has the numbers to prove it.
‘My Boo’ Songwriter Says Usher Initially Hated Song
As of February 2026, the hit record iscertified quintuple-platinum (5x Platinum) by the RIAA. Released in 2004, the record spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. And recently surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify.
However, according to the songwriter, Adonis Shropshire, the hit record almost did not belong to Usher and Alicia Keys. In fact, according to Shropshire, Usher ‘hated’ the hit record after first hearing the beat.
“I got a call at midnight. Jermaine Dupri’s like, ‘Yo, come to the studio.’ He got this beat. And he’s like, ‘write to this one.’ It’s all he had,” Shropshire recalled.
“Usher comes into the studio. It’s like 4 AM in the morning. We played ‘My Boo.’ He hates it. Hates it. He told us, whatever y’all do, don’t ever play that for me again.”
Adonis Shropshire, one of the composers of "My Boo", revealed that Usher hated the song when he first heard it and Beyoncé was supposed to be the original featured artist on the song
— Blackish Press (@blackishpress) February 14, 2026
"I got a call at midnight. Jermaine Dupri's like 'yo, come to the studio.' He got this beat. And… pic.twitter.com/nSBjNgj21z
Shropshire went on to say that even though Usher initially hated the song, he did eventually end up recording it during that same studio session. He says that the R&B star churned out one of the biggest hits of his career at 4:30 the following morning.
In an even bigger plot twist, Shropshire says Alicia Keys was not initially supposed to sing the melody for the song. Beyoncé was supposed to, but time constraints prevented her from doing so.
“Beyoncé was supposed to do the girl part originally, but she was on tour. So she didn’t have the time to do the vocal,” he added.
Luckily for both artists, everything aligned.
