Songfacts®:

• This song is the title track from British rapper Speech Debelle's debut album.
• Debelle's real name is Corynne Elliot, she got her pseudonym from her Jamaican grandmother. This song contains a shout-out to her gran. Debelle explained to The Sunday Times July 26, 2009: "She's a fashion designer and a clothes-maker who tells stories like parables. Her label is called Madame De Belle. When I was old enough to speak, I'd answer her phone and go, 'Hello, Madame De Belle Designs, how may I help you?' It's ingrained in me. My gran's house is the strangest gran's house you could ever walk into. It's all sewing machines, wall to wall, and that's where it happens. She'll be working at four in the morning, she'll be there, creating. And I know what that is now I'm writing. I'll be up then and thinking, 'I'm on fire.'"
• This song was written partly in response to news, received as she was leaving for Australia, that Debelle's close friend Frenchy was dying of cancer. Frenchy died two months after she returned from Melbourne to London. The album is dedicated to him.
• Producer Wayne Lotek recalled to The London Times September 10, 2009 that the lyric: "Oh Frenchy, stay on this earth longer please/I can't believe you're dying/I can't keep from crying," "wasn't even supposed to be a take, It was the guide vocal."
• Speech Therapy was the winner of the prestigious 2009 Mercury Prize for the best British album of the year. The award to Debelle was a surprise to many as at the point when the announcement was made, the British rapper had yet to reach the Official Singles or Albums charts. It is the lowest-selling album to have ever won the award, selling only around 3000 copies at the time of winning the prize.