U Should Know Better was one of the highlights on Robyn’s critically acclaimed album ‘Body Talk PT 2’, and features her together with Snoop Dogg, rapping and putting the world to rights! A fresh video with a gender-twisting concept has just been released, and will be followed up in the next few weeks with a remix package including reworkings by Carli/Savage Skulls and Christian Faulk
Of her studio collaboration with Snoop Dogg, Robyn shared with Billboard, “It was really cool to be in the studio with him, first because I always was a fan, but also because he was really creative. We had so much of an exchange in there, together as vocalists. I’d come up with an idea, and he’d really get it, and get into it, which was awesome”.
Now in 2013, Robyn collaborated again – this spin round with her long-time stylist and choreographer, Decida, to create a video concept for the track: What would happen if Robyn and Snoop swapped genders, backgrounds and locations?
“One night during my European tour, Decida and I had dinner, drinks and laughs with Decida’s friend, Pernilla,” Robyn explains. “We were talking about how much Pernilla looks like Snoop, and it was there and then that the concept for “U Should Know Better” came about, where Snoop and I switch genders.
All we needed to do was to find a “little Robyn”, a year later we did. Tyler came to a casting we held in London and I felt like we had found our guy right away.”
Even though U Should Know Better was released in 2012, Robyn felt strongly about coming out with this new video regardless, “because the song is still banging and we had too much fun with this video idea to just sit on it!”
She continues, “Hopefully video sparks some laughs, but also thoughts on what identity really is. Would you be the same person in another context? Does society have certain expectations of a person based on class, gender, colour, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and cultural background? How much do these expectations then affect your so-called self?
I kind of like the idea that we grow up in a transnational pop cultural mosh pit were you can choose who you want to be instead. All of this is what our 2FACED1 project is about, to know identity is dependent on context and therefore is something fluid”.
In the Adidas Originals-presented U Should Know Better Pt 2 (Behind The Scenes), the viewer gets to see exclusive footage including the ideas behind the video and how it came together. Fans will also see more of Robyn, and of course meet ‘she-Snoop’ Pernilla and ‘boy-Robyn’ Tyler along with the director, Decida.
With its apt lyrics about the Vatican, and backed by remixes by Carli / Savage Skulls and Christian Falk, ‘U Should Know Better’ is really more relevant now than ever.
“Is there a more inspiring pop star on the planet than Robyn?” – NME
“Robyn is remarkably adept at producing pleasurable, accessible pop that, like some kind of graphite alloy, is light but strong, able to carry humor and emotional weight,” – The New Yorker
