Big Sean Says Beyoncé Thought “IDFWU” Was “a little disrespectful”

“I went to their house and was playing them songs. Beyoncé was like, ‘It’s a little disrespectful. Maybe you should [get] Nicki Minaj on it for a female’s voice,’” Sean said. “Jay-Z was like, ‘Nah, it’s hard, though.’ He was like, ‘People gonna get it that you just having fun.’”

“Then I remember I was getting texts from Hov. He sent me a text one time that was like, ‘Every day you not putting that song out, you losing,’” the Detroit rapper added. “I almost didn’t put it on the album. I thought it was a little dumb.”

Ultimately, Sean did end up putting out the track, with Bay Area rapper E-40 serving as the featured artist and not Minaj. Released as the lead single for Sean’s Dark Sky Paradise album, “IDFWU” became the rapper’s third highest-charting single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Long speculated to be about the late Naya Rivera, the Glee actor Sean was in a relationship with and engaged to during the early 2010s, Sean has denied that “IDFWU” was about her.

“She’s made such an impact on people, and she’s done so many great things in her life and her career that it was hurtful to even have that [song] be associated with her,” he said in a 2020 Vulture interview. “It wasn’t a diss to her. I truly made the song and played it for her. She knew about it, and she liked it. We had a breakup that was very public, and we were young and we forgave each other and moved on from that. If I would have known something this tragic would have happened, I would have never made the song.”