Me & U (Cassie song)

2006 single by Cassie

"Me & U" is the debut single by American singer Cassie. It was released on April 25, 2006, as the lead single from her self titled debut album (2006). Written and produced by Ryan Leslie, the song reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained in the chart's top 40 for nearly five months. The song's "Bad Boy" remix features Diddy and Yung Joc and the song's "The Inc" remix features Ja Rule and Harry O. The single has been a successful debut as a top three single in the U. S., a top five single in New Zealand, a top ten hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France, and a top twenty song in Australia. The song was considered "a slinky, vintage sounding track with a hypnotic, snake charming whistle," and likened to imitating Janet Jackson. The single received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America on December 14, 2006. It was also certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry.

In the music video, Cassie comes in at the dance studio with her MP3 which is playing part of the chorus to "Me & U" while improvising some lyrics that were not in the original song. She puts the song on and begins to dance and sing along, hurting herself while doing a spinning move, pouring water over her body, changing her dancing outfit to a dress and high heels and then being able to successfully complete the spinning move later on. The video is directed by Ray Kay. The video was inspired by Janet Jackson's "The Pleasure Principle" video, described as evoking Jackson's "impromptu solo dance rehearsal" during the video's mirror scenes. Cassie stated "I'm a diehard Janet Jackson fan. A lot of people compare my video for "Me & U" to hers for "Pleasure Principle." "I was just rehearsing in the studio, they filmed me and the record label thought it would be great for the video. I'd love to emulate her career. She's incredible, from her moves to her voice." In July 2006 an unreleased, low budget and suggestive video for "Me & U" appeared on YouTube. This video was in stark contrast to the more polished video that was shown on mainstream media outlets. Initially, it was removed from most websites but continued to appear on file sharing networks and eventually appeared again on the internet. Cassie has gone on record to denounce the original video (directed by Little X), which depicts her singing to an unidentified man at a nightclub before taking him to a hotel room where Cassie is depicted kneeling below him while caressing his genital area and then unbuckling his pants in night vision. Cassie's management maintains that the low budget, risqué version was released only for international audiences.

The single became Cassie's most popular single to date, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 for four consecutive weeks from July 22 to August 12, 2006. It was held off the top spot by "Promiscuous" by Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland and "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley which locked up the top two spots while "Me & U" was in third place. "Me & U" reached the top of the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart. In the UK, the song entered the UK Singles Chart at number 23 and, within a week's time, rose to a number six, remaining there for a week before dropping down to number nine. The song also did well around the rest of Europe, including France, Germany, and Ireland.

Country Date Format Label Ref. (Reference) United States April 25, 2006 12 inch vinyl Bad Boy May 15, 2006 Contemporary hit radio, rhythmic contemporary radio May 16, 2006 Digital download United Kingdom August 14, 2006 United States August 22, 2006 12 inch vinyl (remixes) Australia August 28, 2006 CD