Lauren Hashian teamed up with superstar house DJ Junior Sanchez for his newest single, “Speed It Up.”
Hashian, 39, provides the vocals to the retro groovy dance track, which dropped on Friday, July 19.
“Boy don’t mind my ego tripping / Cause you’re all that’s on my mind,” Hashian sings in the opening. “These are onto you / Running through / Just name the place and time.”
“Speed It Up” is the third single off Sanchez’s D4 D4NCE LP, Songprints Vol 1, and Hashian delivers on the bop’s catchy chorus.
“I want your love / I need your love / Let’s speed it up now baby,” the chorus goes. “Do you want my lips / I reminisce / Don’t wanna mess up now baby. Let’s speed it up.”
Ahead of the song’s release, Sanchez, 47, opened up about what inspired him to create the track.
“‘Speed it Up,’ featuring Lauren Hashian, is a record I’ve always wanted to create,” he wrote via Instagram earlier this month teasing the single’s drop. “Many don’t know that Todd Terry and Little Louie Vega come from a genre called Freestyle. Todd Terry worked on songs by Coro, Giggles, and Fascination, while Louie Vega contributed to Information Society’s ‘Running’ and many more.”
Sanchez explained that the style of music was “influenced” by British artists like Mantronix and Joyce Sims. He was inspired to channel their “essence” to pair alongside Hashian’s “amazing vocals.”
The musician later shared that he met Hashian through a colleague while he was in Atlanta to work on his album.
“As I went to the studio, I met Lauren. We spoke, we hung out, kind of got to know each other musically,” he explained in an Instagram video shared on Wednesday, July 17. “I’m not sure — she could probably confirm this better than me — either I followed her on Instagram or she followed me but I recall seeing her last name and kind of jumping out of my seat real quick.”
Sanchez then realized Hashian’s last name rang a bell. Not because she’s married to Dwayne Johnson but because her father is the late Sib Hashian, the legendary drummer for the rock band Boston. The producer shared that he and Lauren bonded over loving her dad’s music.
“We both started kind of getting emotional and tearing up. And that’s how we started our session,” he reflected. “From there, I started playing Lauren a bunch of stuff that influenced me when it came to freestyle … and that’s how we started coming up with ‘Speed It Up.’”
Before working with Hashian, Sanchez previously collaborated with Mýa on the song “So Hype” which dropped in March.
“Speed It Up” is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music and more.
