Soon after attending his grandmother’s funeral in Tennessee, Todd “Speech” Thomas learned his brother also passed away. He wrote “Tennessee” in his bedroom studio as a way of coping with the losses. By the time he’d invited singer Dionne Farris to participate, Arrested Development had signed a record deal and was finishing it in a professional studio.

Speech explained that “the song takes you through a spiritual journey and a life journey through history in a sense, and at the same time it talks about my family, and then it sort of leads to anyone’s family roots, and the direction that people go in life.”

The prominent vocal snippet that opens and closes the song was an uncleared sample of Prince’s “Alphabet Street.” According to Speech, Prince’s lawyers waited until the album climbed all the way to #3 and then fell to #4 to demand a non-negotiable payment of $100,000. Not paying it would mean the album would get pulled from shelves.

The music video of “Tennessee” was shot at a house in Georgia that reminded Speech of his grandmother’s house. The people featured in the video include friends of the band and neighbors in the area who were curious about the shoot. Some of the props, like the slave shackles and the back house where slaves lived, were actual slave-era artifacts present at the house during filming.

“Tennessee” is considered the group’s signature song. It reached the top 40 in several countries, peaking at #6 in the US in the summer of 1992, and also topping the US Rap Chart. It only reached #46 in the UK on release, but after the top 5 success of the band’s next two singles it re-entered and peaked at #18 the following year.