"Me Against the Music" is a song written and performed by Britney Spears featuring Madonna. The song was written by Spears and Madonna along with Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Penelope Magnet, Thabiso Nikhereanye, Terius "The-Dream" Nash, and Gary O'Brien for Spears' fourth studio album In the Zone.
Producer-songwriter Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Penelope Magnet, known collectively as RedZone, presented Spears , the third song they had written and produced, "Pop Culture Whore." While Spears' management liked the track, Spears rejected it, telling them the song "sucked". After bonding with Spears a night in New York to "get in her world" which "made it a lot easier to actually write and know what she would and wouldn't say, to know where her real vibe is", Stewart and Magnet began working on a new song. Stewart came up with the track while Magnet developed the melody on a piano and wrote most of the lyrics.Terius "The-Dream" Nash became involved into the project after receiving a call from Stewart who was saying "We're gonna cut this song with Britney".The-Dream is credited as a co-writer alongside Thabiso Nikhereanye and Gary O'Brien. The song was designed as a sort of battle between Spears and the song, what Magnet described as "trying to out-dance the track or out-beat the drum or out-pluck the guitar ... as if she's ... losing herself in the music."[1]
Originally, this song was not planned on being the first single from In the Zone, and when it was then decided it would be the first single, a completely different version was in mind. Jive Records was planning on releasing "Outrageous" as the lead off single. They felt that it was urban enough to become a hit across most formats, and they also had to fulfill a contract with R.Kelly who produced the song, which obligated them to release the song as a single.
However, Spears felt that the song was not strong enough to be the first single and lobbied for "Me Against the Music". The original version that Spears had in mind, which she performed on September 4, 2003 at the National Football League season kickoff,[3] did not include Madonna on the song. When Spears finally got her way, all was set to release the single. However, during rehearsals for the 2003 Video Music Awards in which Spears would perform with Madonna, Spears played the song to Madonna who liked it. RedZone handed the track over to her and recorded her vocals over the song and some others that she herself had written and then sent it back to Britney's camp. Britney, being a fan of Madonna, was thrilled that Madonna had recorded herself on the track hence why it became the first single to be released from the In the Zone album. (less info)