Baby Boy
by Beyoncé (featuring Sean Paul)

Album: Dangerously in Love (2003)
Charted: 2 1
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song featuring the Jamaican dancehall-reggae singer Sean Paul was #1 in the US for 10 weeks. It also topped the singles chart in China, Mexico and Israel. The song finds Beyoncé smitten with her lover, who she calls her "Baby Boy." He stays on her mind and in her fantasies.
  • Dangerously in Love was Beyoncé's first solo album, and the beginning of her mononym era. She got a lot of help on the album, using a variety of writers and producers on the tracks.

    "Baby Boy" has five co-writers: Beyoncé, Robert Waller, Sean Paul, Jay-Z and Scott Storch. Beyoncé and Jay-Z were playing coy about their personal relationship at the time, but Jigga got writing credit on five tracks from the album, including two where he rapped: "Crazy In Love" and "That's How You Like It."

    Scott Storch was a rising star in the production ranks, having helmed the Christina Aguilera song "Fighter" and many of the other tracks on her Stripped album. Storch would later flame out financially and creatively in spectacular fashion, blowing his millions on a devastating cocaine habit.
  • At the beginning of 2008 Beyoncé won a copyright infringement case against Minneapolis singer-songwriter Jennifer Armour, who claimed that the R&B singer had stolen lyrics and hooks from her song "Got a Little Bit of Love For You" for "Baby Boy." Armour maintained that she had mailed "I Got A Little Bit Of Love For You" to Beyoncé's manager-father Matthew Knowles and her record company in early 2003. However the court found "Baby Boy" had been written before her song had been sent.
  • The smoldering video was directed by Jake Nava, who was in charge of several Beyoncé clips, including "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" and "Crazy In Love." In the "Baby Boy" video, we see Beyoncé in a variety of sets and outfits, including the chain-mail bikini she wears on the album cover.
  • Beyoncé performed some of this song at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2013 (Ravens 34, 49ers 31). When she was done with song, her Destiny's Child cohorts Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams popped out of the floor to join the star.
  • According to a Billboard interview, after Beyoncé sent Paul the song over the internet, he started working on the lyrics outside his yard in a car underneath a mango tree. As the Jamaican star wrote his rhymes, a mango fell straight through the car window into his lap. "That's a hit song right there," he thought to himself.

Comments: 2

  • Chi Girl from NigeriaHow could this stupid song have won a grammy? It just shows how annoying awards could be.
  • Larry from Wayne, PaThis song was number one when my baby girl was born.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")Song Writing

Director Mark Pellington on Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," and music videos he made for U2, Jon Bon Jovi and Imagine Dragons.

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions Answered

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions AnsweredSong Writing

10 Questions for the author of Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Greg talks about writing songs of "universal truth" for King Crimson and ELP, and tells us about his most memorable stage moment (it involves fireworks).

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."

Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine Band

Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine BandSongwriter Interviews

Harry Wayne Casey tells the stories behind KC and The Sunshine Band hits like "Get Down Tonight," "That's The Way (I Like It)," and "Give It Up."

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And HellSongwriter Interviews

Guitarist Tony Iommi on the "Iron Man" riff, the definitive Black Sabbath song, and how Ozzy and Dio compared as songwriters.