Why Pusha T got ripped off making the McDonald’s ‘I’m Lovin It’ theme
Pusha T has had a long gripe with McDonald’s. Still, few know what it is about and why the Daytona creator has persisted in talking about the fast-food chain and what he believes to be a grave injustice.
McDonald’s is one of the biggest fast-food chains in the world, with branches across at least five continents. The hugely famous ‘I’m Lovin’ It’ jingle has been synonymous with the brand since 2003. Few know the jingle’s origins, and even fewer know Pusha T was integral to its creation.
The Clipse, Justin Timberlake, and The Neptunes were all integrated in the early 2000s and released top-charting hits. As such, it is no surprise that McDonald’s knocked on the door looking for a piece of the pie.
However, the music industry can be dirty, and Pusha T was about to find out. After the success of Justin Timberlake’s Justified and The Clipse’s Lord Willin’ albums in 2002, as they entered 2003, McDonald’s approached Justin Timberlake and Pusha T to create a jingle for their new advertising campaign. However, there are certain tricks of the trade that Pusha T maybe didn’t know at the time.
The fast-food chain allegedly asked the pair for a song with the primary phrase ‘I’m Lovin’ It.’ They created a soft, mellow track featuring Pusha T and Justin Timberlake that was played in the earliest renditions of the McDonald’s campaign. However, Pusha T has been insistent that McDonald’s only paid him $500,000 for his rapping and never paid him for his role as a co-writer of the song.
However, he claims that McDonald’s paid Justin Timberlake $6million for his vocals his contributions as co-writer of the song, and for the publishing he demanded. Due to his negotiations, no matter how many times the song has been changed over the years, the vocalist still gets paid for the melody.
Pusha T was ripped off making the ‘I’m I’m Lovin’ It’ theme song because he didn’t assert himself as one of the co-writers, which he was. As such, the fast-food chain took advantage of his innocence and ignored his contribution to the song beyond rapping on it. Pusha T also failed to ask for publishing; unsurprisingly, McDonald’s gleefully capitalised on that too.
Although Pusha T got ripped off after his contributions to ‘I’m Lovin’ It’, there are still muddy waters surrounding the official single released and the McDonald’s version. The McDonald’s version was a jingle and wasn’t released as a track to the public, and the Neptunes-produced song was released as a non-album track the same year. Both were released in 2003.
Since the mistake he made with the McDonald’s jungle, Pusha T has made sure never to make such a grave error again, and when it turned out Arby’s had sampled part of the song ‘Burial,’ the fast-food chain had to pay him every time they aired the advert as he owned 40% of the song’s publishing.
Not many people know about Pusha T’s contribution to the original advert jingle, as it became overshadowed and changed so much over time, but it has been the same for over two decades.