"I Got That" is a hip-hop song by American rapper Amil from her album, All Money Is Legal (2000). She co-wrote the track with its producers L.E.S. and Poke & Tone as well as with Jay-Z, Makeda Davis, and Tamy Lestor Smith. Beyoncé performs the chorus and backing vocals, using the feature as a way to assess her viability as a solo artist outside of her girl group Destiny's Child. In the lyrics, Amil encourages women to seek out emotional, financial, and romantic independence. The music samples the 1985 Gwen Guthrie song "Seventh Heaven". Roc-A-Fella and Columbia Records released "I Got That" on July 5, 2000 as the lead single from All Money Is Legal. It was Amil's debut solo single after being a feature on songs by Jay-Z and other Roc-A-Fella artists. Most reviews mostly focused on Beyoncé, who praised for her vocals, and other critics negatively compared the single to the more personal tracks on the album. In the US, "I Got That" topped the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Billboard chart. According to retrospective articles, the song was not well-remembered, either being forgotten or overlooked since its release. For the music video, Amil goes shopping with Beyoncé at stores, such as René Lezard.

Background and recording

Jay-Z signed Amil to his record label Roc-A-Fella after she was featured on his 1998 single "Can I Get A...". She collaborated with him again for "Nigga What, Nigga Who (Originator 99)" and "Do It Again (Put Ya Hands Up)" (both in 1999) and "Hey Papi" (2000), and appeared on several songs by other Roc-A-Fella artists. Amil was the only woman signed to Roc-A-Fella, working as what music journalist Clover Hope described as "the crew’s go-to female voice", and she was a high-profile member of the label, being promoted as its First Lady. During this time, Amil's features received a significant amount of radio airplay; VH1's Renaud Jean-Baptiste Jr. singled out the success of her Jay-Z collaborations as leading to the creation of her 2000 album All Money Is Legal. Amil co-wrote "I Got That" with its producers—L.E.S. and Poke & Tone duo Jean-Claude Olivier and Samuel J. Barnes—and with Jay-Z, Makeda Davis, and Tamy Lestor Smith for All Money Is Legal. The Source's Aliya S. King contrasted Poke & Tone's work on the song with the rest of the album, which she said was handled by "a slew of up-and-comer producers". "I Got That" was recorded by Steve Sauder at the Hit Factory in New York City, where it was mixed by Rich Travali, and by Mark Mason at Platinum Post Studios in Winter Park, Florida. All of the tracks for All Money Is Legal, including "I Got That", were mastered by Chris Gehringer at Sterling Sound Studios in New York City. "I Got That" features Beyoncé, who performs the chorus and provides backing vocals. It was her first collaboration with her future husband Jay-Z. Beyoncé recorded her parts in early 2000 during a separate recording session. Her then-manager Mathew Knowles paid Roc-A-Fella for the feature as a way to assess her viability as a solo artist, since she was still a part of the girl group Destiny's Child at the time. Beyoncé pursued a solo career three years after "I Got That", releasing her debut album Dangerously in Love in 2003.

Music and lyrics

"I Got That" is a hip-hop song that lasts three minutes and seventeen seconds long. It samples from the 1985 Gwen Guthrie single "Seventh Heaven". According to Spin writer Andrew Unterberger, it has a "squelching, slithering" production, and in an Entertainment Weekly article, David Browne referred to its genre as "girl group hip hop". Browne wrote that Amil used a "sultry, sing songy rapping" style throughout All Money Is Legal, most notably on "I Got That", while The Philadelphia Inquirer's Dan DeLuca said she had a "girlish, take-no-guff voice". Beyoncé's vocals were described as "buttery" by Camille Augustin in Vibe, and as breathy by Unterberger. The lyrics are about encouraging women to pursue emotional, financial, and romantic independence; throughout the song, Amil raps about supporting herself and not needing anything from men, as demonstrated in the lines: "I don’t need a man to / Do for Amil what Amil can do." Discussing the verse, "What chick you know cock Glocks back?", Desire Thompson for Vibe wrote that the song focuses on a "woman having her own with snarky bars to match". DeLuca said that Amil continues the message for the album tracks "All Money Is Legal" and "Girlfriend", in which she "surveys a world where everything is for sale and a girl had best look out for herself" to the listener.

Release and reception

Roc-A-Fella and Columbia Records released "I Got That" as All Money Is Legal's lead single on July 5, 2000. It was made available as a 12-inch single and a CD single, including as a double A-Side with the album's second single "4 da Fam" (2000). The song appeared on the compilation albums R&B Masters in 2001 and Urban Sounds: Hip-Hop & Reggae 1996-2000 in 2003. In the single's music video, Amil and Beyoncé go shopping at stores, including René Lezard, and Eve makes a cameo appearance. The video was on the list of BET's most-played clips for the weeks of August 1 and 8, 2000, and it also played on The Box—a now-defunct music video network—during the same two weeks. Most of the critical commentary focused on Beyoncé's feature. Andrew Unterberger believed that it deserved more commercial success, largely in part to her performance of the chorus. Praising Amil as having a "one-of-a-kind sound", Camille Augustin felt that this was complemented by Beyoncé's vocals. Kathy Iandoli for Dazed thought the feature turned "I Got That" into more of a Destiny's Child song, considering this proof that Beyoncé was the lead of the group. Iandoli wrote that the single also demonstrated that Amil had the potential for a "long successful career being the female rap guest feature". In a more negative review, a writer for Vibe included "I Got That" as one of the worst hip-hop collaborations in 2000. Other critics negatively compared "I Got That" to other tracks on All Money Is Legal. A Billboard reviewer called it a "catchy enough radio-ready tune", but enjoyed the album more when Amil took on more personal issues, specifically for "Smile 4 Me" and "Quarrels". Says Who of the Michigan Chronicle wrote that the album had "a few pleasant surprises" after listeners went beyond "I Got That", which was described as an "easy first single". "I Got That" reached number one on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Billboard chart for the week of September 16, 2000; it was on the chart for twelve weeks. On the urban contemporary radio chart published by Radio & Records, the song peaked at number forty-six. According to retrospective articles, the single was not well-remembered, either being forgotten or overlooked. In 2018, Desire Thompson wrote that the single had "slipped between the cracks" because of the abundance of female rappers in the early 2000s, such as Da Brat, Eve, Lil' Kim, Missy Elliott, and Trina.

Formats and track listings

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of All Money Is Legal:

Footnotes

Citations