I Wanna Love You (Akon song)

"I Wanna Love You"
Song

"I Wanna Love You", the clean version of "I Wanna Fuck You" is the second single by Akon and featuring Snoop Dogg, from his sophomore album Konvicted. It is also featured on Snoop Dogg's eighth album, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment. This song is Akon's first #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 and is also Snoop's second #1 on the same chart. In the censored version of the song they substitute the word "fuck" with "love". The song was originally made by Plies, an up and coming rapper from Ft. Myers, Florida, but his verse was replaced by Snoop's for reasons explained below. Even his name has been left out from the writers' credits. There has been a version made of "I Wanna Fuck U" by Akon featuring Snoop Dogg and Tego Calderon.

The video was directed by Benny Boom and premiered on BET's 106 & Park on November 17, 2006.

It was performed live at the 2006 American Music Awards.

Song information

Plies was originally the creator of this song, but Snoop and Akon replaced his verses for commercial reasons: Plies was arrested on July 2, 2006 for illegal gun possession while two of his people were charged with attempted murder after a shooting broke out at 238 West Nightclub in Gainesville, Florida. Plies was performing a concert when he was informed that his show would be cut 15 minutes short in order to give time to Lil' Boosie to perform right after. In response, Plies' entourage started to fire at the crowd resulting in the injury of 5 people with non-life threatening wounds. Shortly after, Plies was released after paying $10,000 bail. Thus he could continue to promote but it would give the single bad publicity, and since the version with Snoop already circulated unofficially in the mixtape scene, it was an obvious choice to replace the single and album edit since Snoop Dogg was a name already well received as opposed to that of an up-and-coming and controversial artist. Akon and Snoop Dogg's management also agreed to participate on each other's forthcoming albums. Another track, "Boss' Life", is featured on Tha Blue Carpet Treatment as well as "I Wanna Fuck You" as it achieved unexpected sudden success, reaching the 17th spot on the Billboard Hot 100 without a promotional video or physical CD release, and then topping the chart for two consecutive weeks.

Song meaning

When this song was under the original name of "I Wanna Fuck U", the title was self-explanatory; though interestingly, the song has a similar theme to T-Pain's hit "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)". The song centers around the song's character who is in a strip bar and notices a particular stripper doing her routine. They notice each other and strong feelings of wanting to engage in sex (on behalf of the song's character) arise. This is evident in the song's chorus line, which is "I wanna fuck you".

Of course, the song's name and topic garnered controversy, hence the name change (though the name is not changed for Snoop Dogg's album). The lyrics and the overall topic remains the same, only slightly altered so that it allows for the song to be played on radio/television, reaching a wider and younger audience. Words like "pussy" and "nigga(s)" were part of the lyrics, which were censored in the clean version (usually by reversing the words instead of blanking them out, or playing a key over the words).

In addition, "...up on that pole" is changed to "...up on the floor".

Remixes

• A highly explicit remix with Trina appeared in DJ Smallz - Dirty RnB 16.
• A remix with Sean Paul in place of Snoop Dogg is available on DJ Smallz - Smokin RnB 1
• A remix with Tego Calderon including his vocals is available as an extra download in the iTunes Music Store.
• A remix was done by R&B singer Nivea and rapper Rasheeda called U Wanna Touch Me.

Chart information

Chart (2006/2007)	Peak Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Hot Digital Songs	1
U.S. Hot RingMasters	1
U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs	3
U.S. Pop 100	1
U.S. Rhythmic Top 40	1
U.S. Hot Latin Tracks	16
UK Official Singles Chart	3
Bulgarian Airplay Chart	1
Ireland Singles Top 50	2
Sweden Singles Top 60	19
Norway Singles Top 20	18
Polish Singles Chart	17
Switzerland Top 100	16
Austria Top 75	29
Latvian Airplay Top	15
United World Chart	6
Russia TopHit 100	34
Czech IFPI Chart	7
Brasil Top 100	7
Malta Top 40	11
Germany Top 100	14
Australia ARIA Singles Chart	6
Hungary Dance Top 40	28
Dutch Top 40	21
Lithuanian airplay chart	8
Belgian Top 50	16
Euro 200	2
Portugal singles chart	8

* Indicates downloads only
** Physical downloads only

Credits

• Written by C. Broadus, A. Thiam
• Produced by Aliaune "Akon" Thiam for Upfront/Konvict
• Publishers: My Own Chit Publishing/EMI Blackwood Music (BMI); Byefall Music/Famous Music Publishing (ASCAP)
• Recorded by Akon and Mark "Exit" Goodchild at Konkast Recording Studios, Atlanta, GA, Patchwerks Studio, Atlanta, Ga, Record Plant Studios, Los Angeles, CA
• Snoop's vocals recorded by Chris Jackson at Tha Cathedral
• Assisted by Rick DeVarona
• Mixed by Leslie Brathwaite at PatchwerksStudio, Atlanta, GA
• Assisted by Kori Andrews.

External Link

• Akon news, lyrics and video