Miguel stopped by the Genius office to discuss one of his biggest hits “Sure Thing” which has been streamed over a billion times on Spotify to date. The song is produced by Happy Perez and is off Miguel’s debut album All I Want Is You, which was released in 2010. On today’s episode of Verified, find out how the classic song came about and what the R&B singer says makes a song timeless.
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00:00 The thing that strikes a chord in your emotion is the thing that will keep you going forever.
00:04 People make things timeless.
00:06 We all have a moment here in this finite time and it's people making memories of the works
00:11 that make them timeless.
00:13 The song "Without People Making It Theirs" is nothing.
00:15 Like a tree falling in the forest.
00:17 The creative process for "Sure Thing" was kind of a blur.
00:26 I was in the car coming from a session that I got kicked out of and I got this incredible
00:32 CD at the time.
00:33 We were still burning CDs with beats on them.
00:35 I don't remember that drive.
00:36 I just remember, "If you be the cash, I be the rubber band."
00:40 And then the rest is kind of coming as I went.
00:43 I think there's like magic.
00:44 There's like something when it comes from a greater place.
00:47 I think we get to be instruments as we create and it's through our practice that we get
00:53 out of our own way.
00:54 The thing that comes through is greater than us and I think this is one of those songs
00:57 and moments that came through.
01:00 That's why I don't really recall it.
01:02 It's just flow.
01:03 I wrote the song somewhere around 2007.
01:20 Hip-hop had moved to the south.
01:22 We were getting chopped and screwed.
01:23 This was a new thing.
01:25 That intro was a bit of homage to independent artists that were making their mark on hip-hop
01:30 and culture and it was like a homage to the sound.
01:33 I'm pretty sure T.I. had a song called "Rubber Band Man" where he's talking about pretty
01:52 much rubber band banks and just knots of cash.
01:54 It was just so hard.
01:55 You could see it.
01:56 A knot of cash and a rubber band holding it together.
01:59 It was the perfect way to start the song.
02:01 A big shout to T.I.
02:02 A big shout to the south.
02:17 Cigarette and the smoker.
02:19 That just was hard too just because the addiction.
02:22 What it insinuates.
02:24 Even when you know it's bad for you, you just can't quit it.
02:26 You be the talk, I will be the walk.
02:28 That's the whole thing.
02:29 You have to have one and the other for it to work.
02:32 When things contrast, there's something about that that I love.
02:34 "Even when the sky comes falling, even when the sun don't shine, I got faith in you and
02:44 I that put your pretty little hand in mine.
02:49 Even when we're down to the wire babe, even when it's do or die, we could do it baby simple
02:56 and plain, 'cause this love is a sure thing."
03:02 There is an optimism that you have when you feel the kind of love that has no limit, that
03:07 feels balanced, that feels lasting and indefinite.
03:12 The sky in this context really is representative of this belief.
03:15 It's like even when I lose that and the sun doesn't shine, it's like when everything goes
03:19 wrong I still have faith in you and I.
03:22 And the line that really kind of gets it home is, "Just put your pretty little hand in mine."
03:25 It's like, "Trust me and I got you."
03:27 I was trying to capture the vulnerability and also the strength that being in a relationship
03:32 requires.
03:32 If I could choose a lyric and a note that changed everything for me, that made me feel
03:51 love for all we know, Donny Hathaway.
03:53 Before you go, make this moment sweet again.
03:59 So love me, love me tonight.
04:04 Tomorrow was made for sun.
04:07 This whole progression, this melody, as a kid, as a child, hearing that song for the
04:11 first time, never knowing anything about love, but feeling it so deeply, it was the reason
04:17 why I wanted to be a songwriter.
04:19 Record that saint, I'm a sinner.
04:21 Prize, I'm a winner and it's you.
04:23 What did I do to deserve that?
04:26 Paper, baby, I beat a pen.
04:28 Say I am the one 'cause you are a ten.
04:31 For real and I pretend.
04:33 Visual things that capture the symbiotic nature of being in a relationship.
04:37 It really requires for two people to show up.
04:39 Paper without a pen, it's like they're tools but they almost are not fulfilled.
04:43 The subtext of the song is what grabs people the most.
04:46 It's because you can see it and you understand immediately that they need each other.
04:51 All these small analogies to convey I show up for you, you show up for me and there's
04:56 nothing that's impossible.
04:57 I remember thinking about that line and being like, "Damn, we did all these ill ass lines."
05:23 And then we're gonna end it with, "This love between you and I is simple as pie."
05:27 And there was something about it that was like, "Yeah, you know what actually it's the
05:29 perfect kind of like period."
05:31 It's like actually it doesn't need to be overthought.
05:33 When things are understood, they don't have to be explained.
05:36 That's the beauty of that lyric.
05:38 You know exactly what that means.
05:39 It's like Lauren saying, "It could all be so simple."
05:43 It really could.
05:44 When love feels good, it's when it feels simple.
05:47 It feels natural.
05:48 It feels like it's just obvious and not too much to think about.
05:51 "Wayne" was a massive inspiration in the approach of the song in terms of the pronunciation
05:58 of the word.
05:59 You know what I mean?
06:00 He was hitting his R's hard at the time and he was emerging and that was someone I was
06:03 listening to.
06:04 So you know, "I be the lover, you be the fighter babe.
06:08 If I'm the blunt, you could be the writer babe."
06:10 All the R's are pronounced really hard on that song intentionally.
06:14 Big shout out to Weezy.