A new enhanced music video takes viewers behind the scenes of Ne-Yo’s breakthrough hit. “So Sick,” the chart-topping smash from the singer-songwriter’s 2006 debut album In My Own Words, is the latest classic music video to get the Vevo Footnotes treatment. In the newly released segment, Ne-Yo describes being inspired by the music as soon as he heard it, his inspiration for the lyrics, and the song’s legacy.

In the Footnotes video, Ne-Yo describes his first encounter with the production duo Stargate, “two of the most talented, six-foot-tall Norwegians you’ll ever meet.” The moment he heard the beat that would become “So Sick,” he was entranced. Before the Stargate guys could even fix their coffee, he was ready to sing them the first verse and hook, written on the spot. “They’re both very mild-mannered gentlemen, but the second I got to ‘I’m so sick of love songs,’ they both jumped up,” he remembers.

Ne-Yo explains that the song is about the first time he felt like he was truly in love. “I was around 15 or 16,” he remembers. “I was the only one in my group with a girlfriend, so suddenly she became the enemy. Instead of playing basketball or video games with them, I was with her. It turned into, ‘Is your girlfriend gonna let you come over?’ And I let it bruise my ego. I started treating her badly, and she left. That’s when it hit me: I really loved this girl. For a long time, if the radio was on, it was some sad, slow love song that kept her memory right there. I hated it, but I wouldn’t turn it off, because it reminded me of her.”

Ne-Yo remembers being certain “So Sick” would be huge, and he was right. The song became his first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and fueled the success of In My Own Words, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Ne-Yo recently released two vinyl reissues of the album to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Two decades later, he sees the song as a counterbalance to the hip-hop bravado that had taken hold in R&B at the time: “I think when that song came out, it was a reminder that we can still sing, still do melodies, still mean something. I think it’s a reminder to this day: It’s okay to be vulnerable.”

Shop the 20th anniversary edition of Ne-Yo’s In My Own Words on vinyl and CD here.