Lyrically, the song covers breakups, separation and divorce, and the animosity felt by a mother for her daughter’s former flame. “Ms. Jackson” actually comes as an open letter to Erykah Badu and her mother – Andre had a child with Badu out of wedlock, and continuously felt as if he was portrayed as a terrible father to her mother. He constantly felt as if his child was kept from him on purpose, and used the song to openly tell the world his struggles. What did Erykah’s mother think? Andre explained years ago: “I probably would never come out and tell Erykah’s mom, ‘I’m sorry for what went down.’ But music gives you the chance to say what you want to say. And her mom loved it. She’s like, ‘Where’s my publishing check?'”Erykah’s reaction was less positive; hearing Big Boi’s verse “hit a sore spot” while her baby father’s “felt very good because his verse was really, really inspiring. He just said how he felt and it was his honest feelings and I always respected that and listened to what he felt and appreciated it.”

At first, the song was created as an acoustic guitar song in Andre’s garage – he loved it so much, he spent painstaking hours adapting it to something more his style, “something people could understand a little bit more”. Sound engineer John Frye had a tough task making this happen, as eventually the whole song is underpinned with a classic Brothers Johnson soundtrack (below) in reverse, giving the ensemble a unique, unsettling feel upon first listen – of course, once you’ve heard it in one too many uni nightclubs, that disquieting feel loosens to one of pure elation.