Released September 17, 1979 | Format 7" single12" single Length 5:13 | |
Recorded 1979, Marvin's Room, Los Angeles, California | ||
"Ego Tripping Out" is a 1979 funk-styled dance record released by American soul singer Marvin Gaye, released as a single on the Tamla (Motown) label.
The song, written, composed, arranged and produced by Gaye himself, was a self-mockery of the singer's image and lifestyle. Providing a semi-rap at the beginning of the song where he sang "I got the baddest cool/could never be the fool/the ladies wait to get down with me", he later talks about the downside of being in the spotlight as he sang about his crippling drug abuse: "cause the toot and the smoke won't fulfill the need". This song was to be the lead the single of his next album Love Man; the album was withdrawn for its elegiac tone, which was a continuation of style to Here, My Dear and Marvin evolved the album into In Our Lifetime. This song did however, make it to the deluxe edition, with bonus instrumentation.
The song, while not making it to the Billboard Hot 100, still made the R&B charts, peaking at #17. It would be Marvin's last Top 40 Billboard single at least on the R&B singles chart until 1981's "Praise".