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    I Can't Believe I Never Clocked These 11 Subtle Times Musicians Made References To Their Earlier Work

    Some lyrics are just so good, you gotta hear them twice!

    Tori Honoré
    by Tori Honoré

    BuzzFeed Staff

    We all love Easter eggs in TV and movies, but what about when it comes to songs? A lot of artists have actually left little hints in their music videos and songs for the most devoted fans to find, and I had fun finding some!

    Disney / Via giphy.com

    So here are 11 artists that have referenced one of their songs in another one of their songs:

    1. Britney Spears

    on the left an image of britney spears in the baby one more time video. on the right an image of britney spears in the stronger video
    Sony / Via youtube.com

    "... Baby One More Time" was the first track on Britney Spears's debut album, also titled .... Baby One More Time. The song hit #1 on the charts of every country it debuted in, and is listed as one of the best-selling singles of all time. In the song, the first line of the chorus, "my loneliness is killing me", portrays Britney's character as a lovestruck teenager who desperately wants her ex back.

    In her 2000's single, "Stronger", from her second album, Oops!... I Did It Again, Britney showed her growth from that original line. She referenced "... Baby One More Time" in "Stronger" by singing, "my loneliness ain't killing me no more", in the chorus. Basically stating that the end of the relationship in the first album hurt, but she's over it now.

    Outside of the storylines of the two songs, it was proposed shortly after the release of the album that the lyric callback in "Stronger" was actually a jab directed at Britney's management.

    Sam Stryker @sbstryker

    When Britney Spears sang "my loneliness is killing me" on ...Baby One More Time and then sang "my loneliness ain't killing me no more" on Stronger... ahh yes, that was history

    Reply Retweet Favorite
    Twitter: @sbstryker

    The rumour was that this was possibly Britney's way of saying that she could make it on her own, but considering the fact that both songs were written by producer, Max Martin, this is just speculation.

    2. Post Malone

    on the left an image of post malone in the congratulations video. on the right an image of post malone in the wow video.
    UMG / Via youtube.com

    "Congratulations" was the lead single from Post Malone's debut album, Stoney, and is one of his biggest songs in general. In the song he raps, "they said I wouldn't be nothing, now they always say 'congratulations'". 

    In "Wow.", his lead single from his third album, he shouts out his success since his debut and the hit he had with "Congratulations" by saying, "Before I dropped Stoney none of y'all really cared, now they always say 'congratulations' to the kid." He reminisces and reiterates that despite what others thought, he ended up making it big.

    Towards the end of 2018, Post Malone was adamant about putting out more music following the massive success he had with his first studio album Beerbongs & Bentleys at the beginning of that year.

    Post Malone @PostMalone

    Trying to put out a new body of work before the end of the year but we all know how that goes wish me luck k

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    Twitter: @PostMalone

    He released "Wow." on Christmas Eve that year, partly as a surprise gift to his fans and partly as a celebratory reward to himself for the chart-topping year 2018 was for him.

    3. Beyoncé

    on the left an image of beyonce in the crazy in love video. on the right an image of beyonce from the get me bodied remix video
    Columbia Records / Sony BMG / Via youtube.com

    "Crazy In Love" was Beyonce's wildly successful lead single from her first solo album, Dangerously In Love. In "Get Me Bodied (Extended Mix)", Beyoncé references not only "Crazy In Love" by reviving the "uh oh's" from the song's hook, but she also makes a reference to how iconic the track was.

    In "Get Me Bodied (Extended Mix)", by saying "do the uh-oh-uh-oh" the pop culture impact that "Crazy In Love" had is propped up by making the recognisable "uh-oh's" into a thing of their own entirely.

    4. Cardi B

    on the left an image of cardi b from the bodak yellow video. on the right an image of cardi b from the motorsport video.
    WMG / UMG / Via youtube.com

    "Bodak Yellow" is the first single Cardi B released after signing to a label in 2017, and the lead single on her debut album Invasion of Privacy. She originally raps the line, "Now she say she gon' do what to who? Let's find out and see," demonstrating how she would make time for a fight with someone badmouthing her.

    In "Motorsport", a collab song between Cardi B, Migos, and Nicki Minaj, Cardi uses the lyric again, now to reference her alleged beef with Nicki. However, this time she uses the line to make it clear that she won't participate in petty drama. By rapping, "You heard she gon' do what from who? That's not a reliable source," she basically is now saying that she has better things to do than be a part of media-fueled fights.

    Unfortunately, Cardi B and Nicki Minaj continued to fuel the long-held fan theories that they disliked each other.

    View this video on YouTube
    youtube.com

    Following the release of "Motorsport", Cardi B in a radio interview went on to say that she never heard Nicki's verse until after the song was released. Nicki Minaj got real after hearing Cardi's side of the story, telling Beats 1, "I remember when I first came in the game, if a female of that stature had done a feature with me on it, I would only be singing their praises and saying thank you. The first interview she did after ‘Motorsport’ came out, it just really hurt me."

    From then, it seems both rappers actually did still have time for the drama.

    5. Harry Styles

    on the left harry styles performing meet me in the hallway. on the right harry styles performing only angel
    SME / Via youtube.com

    The first track on Harry Styles' self-titled debut solo album, "Meet Me in the Hallway" tells the story of someone stuck in a sort of purgatory between addiction and recovery, as a metaphor for an intensely codependent love story where one person is desperately yearning for the return of their lover.

    The sixth song on that same album, "Only Angel", is about Harry's attraction to and wanting of a person he knows will not be good for him. He references the first song of the album with the lyric "end up meeting in the hallway every single time" solidifying that both songs are about the complex nature of this probable toxic love story.

    6. Billie Eilish

    on the left an image of billie eilish from the ocean eyes video. on the right an image of billie eilish from the you should see me in a crown video.
    UMG / Via youtube.com

    Billie Eilish originally released "ocean eyes" at 13 years old on SoundCloud, where it became a viral hit nearly instantly. In the song, she puts herself in the shoes of someone going through the heartbreak of ending a relationship that they didn't realise was toxic due, in part, to the other person's mesmerising blue irises. 

    In "you should see me in a crown" she references the repetition of the line "your ocean eyes" from her debut song by saying "Cold in my kingdom size, fell for these ocean eyes". In this song, however, Billie is actually referring to her own blue eyes as the ones with the potential to hurt someone.

    In an interview with Beats 1, Billie Eilish interestingly revealed that "you should see me in a crown" was actually written almost right after "ocean eyes".

    Kevin Winter / Getty Images

    She went on to say, "Me and my brother made that song, like, right after “ocean eyes”, and then we just like forgot about it, completely... It was this weird horrible version of me when I was 13 singing it, with different lyrics and different production."

    7. Lady Gaga

    on the left an image of lady gaga from the just dance video. on the right an image of lady gaga performing monster
    UMG / Via youtube.com

    "Just Dance" was Gaga's debut single and her first hit overall from her album, The Fame. The iconic track was written in only 10 minutes and took just about that long to become the chart-topper it is.

    Lady Gaga gave a clear nod to her breakout track in "Monster" by singing the lyric "I wanna just dance, but he took me home instead," to the same tune as the lyric "just dance" is sung in its respective song. 

    8. BTS

    top an image of bts from the no more dream video. on bottom an image of bts in the yet to come video.
    HYBE Labels / Via youtube.com

    In their debut song, "No More Dream" the song begins with the main rapper, RM, repeating the line, "Ne kkum-eun mwoni?" ("what's your dream?") The song itself is about having big ambitions growing up and the pressure to achieve success fast or give up.

    In "Yet To Come", the group look back on the decade they've had since their debut in 2013, and how far they came as a whole. The music video for the song features a lot of easter eggs from past music videos, but the line in the chorus, "dangsin-eun kkumkkuneunga, geu gil-ui kkeut-eun mueos-ilkka?" ("do you have a dream, what's at the end of that path?") references their beginnings with "No More Dream" and brings the band's story to a full circle moment. The callback demonstrates that they achieved the success they could only dream about, and now they're looking toward the future.

    BTS created a three-episode radio series with Apple Music called BTS Radio: Past & Present to welcome the release of "Yet To Come" and their subsequent anthology album, Proof. During the show, they discussed the meaning of "Yet To Come" and its references to their past work a bit further.

    Axelle / FilmMagic

    Jimin, one of the main vocalists of the band, commented in the final episode of the show, "We've done a great job getting where we are now, and I think our new song marks a comma, not a period in our careers... I want its message to our fans to be that we are going to return with a more mature version of ourselves."

    9. Kendrick Lamar

    on the left an image of kendrick lamar from the backseat freestyle video. on the right an image of kendrick lamar from taylor swifts bad blood remix video
    UMG / Via youtube.com

    "Backseat Freestyle" is the third song on the good kid m.A.A.d city album. Kendrick raps about his younger self's dreams of tangible things that would define his success with the main line of the chorus being, "All my life I want money and power".

    With his feature on Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood (Remix)", Kendrick brings this lyric back with a twist that acknowledges his career growth since the original line, rapping, "Still, all my life, I got money and power."

    Moreover, this song reference in his verse on the remix also served as a reference to the fact that Taylor Swift showed herself to be a fan of "Backseat Freestyle" in a now-deleted Instagram post celebrating the release of her album 1989.

    View this video on YouTube
    Taylor Swift

    10. The Jonas Brothers

    on the left an image of nick jonas in the burnin up video. on the right an image of nick jonas from the cool video
    UMG / Via youtube.com

    It'd be a task to try and forget the passionate way that Nick Jonas belted out the lyric, "red dress" in the band's 2008 song "Burnin' Up" from their third album A Little Bit Longer. Nick Jonas talked about the now infamous way he delivered that ad-lib in a 2019 interview with Music Choice saying, "It was a line delivered with a lot of passion, and I understand why it’s become so important... I’m really proud to have given the world so much joy."

    The joy continued in their song "Cool" (the clear spiritual opposite of "Burnin' Up") where Nick notably sings about a red dress once again, but this time with a much more ~cool~ delivery.

    Music Choice @MusicChoice

    Of all the questions we asked the @jonasbrothers... This was the most important one 👠💃

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    11. Blackpink

    on the left an image of lisa from blackpink in the boombayah video. on the right an image of lisa from blackpink in the pink venom video.
    YG Entertainment / Via youtube.com

    "BOOMBAYAH" was Blackpink's debut song, their first single to top the Billboard International charts, and the first K-pop debut music video to gain over 1 billion views on YouTube. The song serves as an introduction to the edgier "take no BS" image of the group, shown in the lyric where Lisa raps, "gamhi nal makjima hoksina nuga nal makado, I'mma go, brrrr, Rambo" ("If someone gets in my way, Imma go, brrrr, Rambo").

    In the song "Pink Venom", Lisa likens herself to Rambo again in a reference to "BOOMBAYAH" where Blackpink reestablishes themselves as badasses. Lisa raps, "Black paint and ammo, got bodies like Rambo", to basically say they're still, if not more, fierce than they were at the time of their debut.

    Speaking more on the group's confident image and the meaning of "Pink Venom"'s lyrics, rapper Jennie told Billboard, "We wanted to relay our identity in the song as much as we could... Since 'pink' and 'venom' have contradicting images, we thought they were kind of reminiscent of us…we are named Blackpink and contradiction is our charm."

    What's your favourite musical Easter egg? Let us know in the comments!