4 Minutes (Madonna Song) - Writing and Inspiration

Writing and Inspiration

"We kind of had psychoanalytic sessions whenever we wrote songs. We'd sit down and we'd start talking about situations. And then we'd start talking about issues or problems or relationships with people. That was the only way, because you know, writing together with somebody is very intimate. So we had to find a place to start talking about something we cared about, so we could get into writing about something we cared about."

—Madonna talking to Interview about the writing process.

"4 Minutes" is a collaboration between Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. It was written by all three of them, along with Nate "Danja" Hills, and produced by Timbaland, Timberlake and Danja. The song, initially named "4 Minutes to Save the World", was one of the last to be produced for Madonna's album Hard Candy. In an interview with MTV News, Madonna said that the concept of the song was developed through discussions with Timberlake. She further explained the meaning of the song:

Well I don't think it's important to take it too literally. I think the song more than anything is about having a sense of urgency; about how we are you know, living on borrowed time essentially and people are becoming much more aware of the environment and how we're destroying the planet. We can't just keep distracting ourselves we do have to educate ourselves and wake up and do something about it. You know at the same time we don't want to be boring and serious and not have fun so it's kind of like well if we're going to save the planet can we have a good time while we are doing it?

Ingrid Sischy from Interview magazine said that the song felt like a ballad for the world, containing "the sounds of a great big marching band. It's a giant dance song". Madonna agreed with Sischy and responded that the song was "a funny paradox" and was one of the inspirations behind her documentary I Am Because We Are (2008). The documentary dealt with the acute suffering and food shortage afflicting the African nation of Malawi.