Harlow’s Billboard Hot 100-topping “First Class” includes a sample of Fergie’s 2006 song “Glamorous,” which features Ludacris
Jack Harlow finally brought the iconic sample in “First Class” to life!
While opening the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards with a performance of “First Class,” the 24-year-old rapper surprised the crowd with a surprise appearance from Fergie, who sang part of her 2006 smash “Glamorous,” which is sampled on Harlow’s Billboard Hot 100-topping hit.
At the beginning of the performance, the “Whats Poppin” musician opened the track from an airplane set, dressed as a flight attendant and surrounded by seated celebrities including Lil Nas X, Avril Lavigne, Chloe Bailey, Jimmy Fallon, Saucy Santana and Becky G.
i can put you in first classs 🎶 pic.twitter.com/2r1x9D7cGU
— Chlöe (@ChloeBailey) August 29, 2022
Then, Harlow moved to the awards show’s main stage to continue the song and announce Fergie.
Donning a metallic silver skirt and top printed with “FIRST CLASS” in red stamp font, the former Black Eyed Peas vocalist entered the stage to perform “Glamorous,” accompanied by a grinning Harlow, who shouted out some of the Ludacris-featuring song’s lyrics.
Released in April ahead of Harlow’s sophomore album Come Home the Kids Miss You, “First Class” heavily samples the instrumental, chorus and “If you ain’t got no money, take yo’ broke ass home” ad-lib from “Glamorous.” One of Fergie’s signature songs, the Ludacris collaboration was released on her 2006 album The Dutchess and produced by Polow da Don.
“First Class” received a nomination for song of summer at the 2022 VMAs, one of Harlow’s seven total nods at the ceremony, where he also acted as emcee alongside Nicki Minaj and LL Cool J.
Prior to the performance, Fergie had not publicly spoken about “First Class.” In an April interview with Extra, Harlow said he hadn’t yet heard from the “Fergalicious” hitmaker directly but was told she “loved” the song.
“I heard through the grapevine that she loved it,” Harlow told the outlet. “But I love Fergie. I’ve loved Fergie for years. To me, it wasn’t just like an opportunist type of energy; to me, I’ve been waiting to do that.”
He continued, “People don’t know when I was in 5th grade, I tried to perform ‘Fergalicious’ at the talent show, and they said ‘no’ because it was too explicit. So, I didn’t get to do it. But I’ve loved Fergie for that long, and I think now, everything just connected. I was so grateful she cleared [the ‘Glamorous’ sample].”
The following month, Harlow told radio show The Breakfast Club about how the sample came to be part of “First Class.”
“When I was in the studio making it, and once the first verse and the chorus were done, I was like, ‘This is a hit.’ I was charged up. I was telling everyone around me, ‘Yo, this is a hit.’ And everyone was like, ‘Hmm, I don’t know if it’s a hit, bro.’ And I was like, ‘Damn, am I tripping? Like is it not a hit?’ … ‘I feel so strong about this,'” he said on the program.
Harlow added, “I’m proud of myself on that one, and I’ve been wanting that type of record. I idolized Fergie as a kid, so this is so full-circle for me, it’s crazy.”
The “First Class” and “Glamorous” mash-up marked Harlow’s first solo VMAs performance and second after rapping “Industry Baby” with Lil Nas X at last year’s ceremony.
During his performance at the BET Awards 2022 in June, Harlow surprised the audience and brought Brandy out to duet her remix of “First Class.” The debut performance of the track arrived one month after its premiere on Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning — which came in response to a viral video of the rapper not knowing Brandy’s song “Angel in Disguise,” or that she’s Ray J’s sister, during an interview on the same radio show earlier in May.
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