‘Say My Name’ by Destiny’s Child was inspired by UK garage, says producer

Hit Destiny’s Child track ‘Say My Name’ was inspired by UK garage and 2-step, producer Rodney Jerkins (AKA Darkchild) said in a recent interview.

Speaking to Ross Golan on And The Writer Is…, a podcast that documents stories from global songwriters, Jerkins recalls the making of 1999 single ‘Say My Name’ before it hit number one in the charts and won two GRAMMY Awards.

Jerkins said that he was working in London with the Spice Girls, who took him to a nightclub in the capital just days before he was due to get in the studio with Destiny’s Child.

Read this next: SPRAYBOX’s Jacotanu showcases UK-driven versatility on ‘WAYPOINT-1’

“At this club, I heard this interesting style of music which was called, like, garage or 2-step,” he explained. “I heard it and the inspiration just happened, right? I don’t hear this in America at all.”

“I didn’t even really know who Destiny’s Child was, to be honest. I didn’t know what to give them, I just knew that I was inspired by that sound,” he said. “Before I can even touch a piano or anything, my songwriter partner LaShawn Daniels was in the lounge on the phone with his baby’s mother.”

He explained that the pair were fighting over the phone, recalling: “I’m just listening – the session is about to start, and I hear LaShawn say to her: ‘If no one’s there, then say my name. Say my name’.”

Read this next: Mengzy Selects - 042 / December

“I told him, ‘hang up the phone, hang up the phone,” he said. “That’s it. Then we wrote the song ‘Say My Name’.”

In a 2020 interview with You Know I Got Soul, Jerkins spoke about feeling bored with producing records in such quick succession through the ‘90s, and decided to “do something different” on the Destiny’s Child single.

Speaking on the DJ he heard playing garage at a London club, he explained: “This DJ made me a CD and I studied it on my whole flight back. That 2-step garage sound, you don’t hear it too much on the song now, but if you heard the original version, it was all that UK garage sound.”

Watch a clip from Rodney Jerkins' And The Writer Is…interview below.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Associate Digital Editor, follow her on Twitter