Songfacts®:

• At his concerts, Usher often gets up close and personal with his female fans, and at his July 4, 2023 Las Vegas show, he had a moment with Keke Palmer, a big fan who was enjoying a night out with her girlfriends. Usher sang "There Goes My Baby" right at Palmer's table, embracing the actress and having her sing a few lines.
  
  Video quickly circulated on social media that didn't sit well with Palmer's boyfriend, Darius Jackson, who took to Twitter to complain, calling out her revealing outfit: "We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn't want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others." (Jackson and Palmer weren't married.) As others chimed in, it became a full-blown controversy. Palmer defended herself and got lots of support from her fans.
  
  Six weeks later, Usher dropped the song "Boyfriend," where he plays the paramour, taunting the boyfriend:
  
  Well he should know I'm pretty easy to find
  Just look for me wherever he sees you
  
  The song seems like it was written for Palmer, but it wasn't: Usher recorded it in February 2023 and released it as a single to capitalize on the controversy.
• Keke Palmer stars in the video, which was released on August 16, 2023, the same day as the single. Directed by Ricky Alvarez and shot in Las Vegas, it shows Palmer dressed like Usher, doing some impressive dancing in his style along with the real Usher. At the end, she wakes up to find it was just a dream and she missed the show. "I'm so tired. I'm a mother after all," she says in a dig on Darius Jackson.
  
  The fantasy sequence was a real-life dream for Palmer, who posted: "I know I'm a gUrL but when I watched your videos, I never wanted to be the girl in them, I wanted to be YOU. Thank you for making a dream come true."
• Usher wrote the song with Rico Love and Camper, two of his top collaborators. Love and Camper produced it along with the brothers Tricky and Laney Stewart, and Usher's half brother, James Lackey "JLack."
  
  According to Rico Love, whose credits include "Sweet Dreams" by Beyoncé and "It All Belongs to Me" by Brandy & Monica, he started writing the song with Usher in mind, and he knew it couldn't be a stock storyline.
  
  "When you're talking about artists like Usher, Beyoncé, Brandy, those iconic artists, you want to make sure you write something that challenges them, so I always want to make sure that when I write for Usher, I'm saying something," he told You Know I Got Soul.
  
  Love added that earlier Usher hits took the same approach. "I was trying to fall in line with 'U Don't Have To Call,' 'You Make Me Wanna,' 'U Remind Me.' I was trying to tell that story and make people feel how I felt when I heard those songs. Give them that storyline that hasn't been told yet."
• The song was originally titled "UR Boyfriend," playing on Usher's initials (his full name is Usher Raymond). On many of his early songs, Usher substituted "U" for "You" in his song titles.