How 702 got the TLC song Missy Elliott wrote, “Where My Girls At?”
Missy Elliott wrote "Where My Girls At?" with TLC in mind. Left Eye wanted it, but the other members did not, so 702 took it to No. 4 on the Hot 100.
Missy Elliott wrote "Where My Girls At?" for TLC. When the song failed to win over all three members, she gave it to 702, whose second album was then in preparation for Motown. Kameelah "Meelah" Williams sang lead on the recording.
“Lisa ("Left Eye" Lopes) really wanted it, she really wanted that record, but I guess, if it's two against one (what can you do?) So I ended up giving that record to 702, which was cool because they were a group. I knew whoever had it, I wanted it to be going to a group.”
— Missy Elliott, speaking to the Associated Press in 2018
A group record from the start
Elliott wrote the song with Eric Seats and Rapture Stewart. Seats and Stewart also handled the production. The track combines a clipped guitar figure, syncopated drums and a chorus built for a group response. The lyric warns a man not to treat his partner as an option while he looks elsewhere.
Elliott told the AP that she wanted women to hear something of their own experience in it. She compared the intended response to hearing a church sermon that feels directed at you personally.
- Song
- Where My Girls At?
- Artists
- 702 · Meelah Williams on lead
- Writers
- Missy Elliott · Eric Seats · Rapture Stewart
- Producers
- Eric Seats · Rapture Stewart
- Album
- 702 · second studio album
- US single release
- April 5, 1999 · Motown
The song TLC left behind
The recording reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 19, 1999. It also peaked at No. 3 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and No. 1 on Rhythmic. Billboard ranked it No. 11 on the 1999 year-end Hot 100.
702, the Las Vegas trio of Williams and sisters Irish and Lemisha Grinstead, released its self-titled second album in June. The album reached No. 34 on the Billboard 200 and No. 7 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. "Where My Girls At?" was its biggest single and the group's highest-charting Hot 100 hit.
Elliott's account settles the origin of the song without reducing it to a rejection story. TLC passed as a group, Left Eye disagreed, and 702 recorded the version that reached the public.
