Shenseea, Fantasia, And Missy Elliot Sample Dawn Penn’s ‘No, No, No’ For ‘The Color Purple’ Soundtrack
Hell No! (Reprise) – Missy Elliot Remix, a new collaboration between American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino, Jamaican singer Shenseea, and American rapper Missy Elliot off The Color Purple movie soundtrack, burrows heavily from Dawn Penn‘s Dancehall version of You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No), released in 1993.
The soundtrack for the new adaptation was released on Friday (December 15) via Warner Bros’ in-house label WaterTower Music. “The Color Purple (Music From And Inspired By), the biggest R&B soundtrack in decades, boasts 17 songs from the film, 16 newly penned songs and four remixes. New songs from the collection, including Alicia Keys’ stunning Lifeline and the soulful duet from USHER & H.E.R., Risk It All, showcase how the new music has been inspired by the emotional journey experienced in the film,” a release noted.
Produced by Stephen Bray and Nick Baxter, the Missy Elliot remix builds on Fantasia’s Hell No!, adding a Reggae beat based on Steely & Clevie’s instrumental for No, No, No and a verse from Shenseea that speaks to resilience, independence, and self-reliance:
Standin’ on business, the Lord is my witness (Yeah)
Livin’ life’s a flex, this is survival of the fittest (Woah)
Feel like I been on this road forever, but I still fight
Tunnel vision, focused on the light shinin’ real bright
Always find my way through the darkness, this is personal
I am my sister’s keeper, that’s something for certain
I’ll be damned if a man teach me how to be a woman
You gonna respect me no matter what I put on (Yeah)
Never take “no” for an answer (Yeah)
Independence mean no need no sponsor
The Hell No! Remix is Shenseea’s second song to appear on a movie soundtrack this year. In June, she joined Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers for Infamous, one of six songs released on the deluxe version of Sony’s Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse soundtrack.
Similarly, Infamous had featured a sample of Barrington Levy’s 1985 hit Here I Come, crediting Levy and the producer Paul ‘Jah Screw’ Love.
Dawn Penn’s You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No), which she said she wrote when she was experiencing “the painful aftermath of love” and “a broken heart”, was first recorded by her for Studio One in 1967, but had been re-recorded in 1968, after producer Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd pointed out that the original recording had an error.
Penn’s song used elements of American R&B singer Willie Cobbs’s You Don’t Love Me (1960), which itself is based on R&B singer Bo Diddley’s She’s Fine, She’s Mine (1955). She recorded the song again for King Jammys in 1990, then in 1992 for Trojan, and in 1993 for Steely & Clevie, when Dodd asked the production duo “to do an album project for Heartbeat, celebrating Studio One’s 35 years in the music industry”.
The Steely & Clevie version peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart at No. 58 in April 1994, and also entered the UK Charts at No. 9 before rising to No. 3.
In May 2022, this version was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) after it sold more than 400,000 copies in the UK.
It has been sampled and covered over 30 times, according to WhoSampled.com, including tracks by Rihanna, Eve, Ghostface Killah, Usher, and Alicia Keys.
Two months ago, Offset sampled the track in a new song, Worth It with Don Toliver, off his Set It Off album.
In December 2021, it was sampled by Mary J. Blige on the song Amazing, with DJ Khaled, off her album Good Morning Gorgeous.
Coming to theaters on December 25, The Color Purple movie follows Alice Walker’s original storyline from the novel of the same name, but is adapted from the 2005 Broadway musical. Fantasia is reprising her role as “Celie” from the musical.
Steven Spielberg previously adapted the novel for the big screen with Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, and Oprah Winfrey.