Album: Bills (2015)
Charted: 2 79
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Songfacts®:

  • Florida native Gamal "Lunchmoney" Lewis comes from a musical family. His father, Ian Lewis, and uncle Roger Lewis are both members of the Jamaican reggae act Inner Circle and his brother Abebe Lewis is the head of Inner Circle Studios. (Inner Circle are best known for their single "Bad Boys," which serves as the theme song for Fox Network's long-running television reality TV show Cops.)
  • Lunchmoney Lewis first built cachet as a co-writer of Jessie J's single "Burnin' Up" and a guest appearance on the hook of Nicki Minaj's The Prinkprint track "Trini Dem Girls." This fun-spirited song about the struggle of having to work hard to pay the bills for himself and his family became Lewis' first Hot 100 hit and also topped the Australian singles chart.
  • Lunchmoney Lewis penned the song with Ricky Reed (Jason Derulo's "Talk Dirty") and Jacob Kasher (Maroon 5's "Sugar"). He recalled to Billboard magazine: "I wasn't really thinking about anything - we did the song together in 30 minutes. I was just having a good time and trying to write a song that was true to me."
  • Ricky Reed recalled the track's inspiration to The Guardian. "I became kind of obsessed with doing a modern-day spin on gospel rag," she said. "When I played Lunch a beat I made, he randomly jumped up and was like, 'I … got … bills!' It was so hooky and so odd. He went into the booth for an hour and a half rolling with those lyrics. By the end of the day we knew it was a thing."

Comments: 2

  • Anonymous from Four Oaks Sutton Coldfield Near Birmingham England.I thought, when I first heard it, is this some 1930s/40s ragtime piano tune been sampled by some present day DJ or rapper.
    I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was a 2015 hit in Australia suddenly being inserted into some BBC radio2 shows recently in 2025 to jolly the mood up after a run of depressing heartbreak tracks. It’s absolutely great ! I could hear it never ending with those lyrics that are so funny yet so accurate. Original in a didactic way, sad but happy, heartbreaking but ironic. Just born to be!
    Ron Bowden. Sutton Coldfield West Midlands UK.
  • Luke from Manchester, UkThis is what people assume is music? Give me a break!
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