Britney Spears Was 'Hungry' For 'Scream And Shout,' will.i.am Says

With more than fifteen years of pop superstardom under her belt, Britney Spears is still looking for her next scorching track.

So, when she hooked up with pal will.i.am on "Scream and Shout" (off his forthcoming solo album, #willpower), he knew he found the right girl to lend vocals to the hook.

"Britney and I, I did something on her album Femme Fatale, 'Big Fat Bass,' and that experience was such a great experience that we decided to work again and it's been great," he told over the weekend at Jingle Ball in L.A. "I would love to work with Britney again. She has great energy in the studio; she's a sweetheart, a doll of an artist and just a kind, kind person. And when she's in the studio, nothing matters but the music. So that's a great experience to have and share with somebody that loves music."

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The song hit the streets last month, ahead of its scheduled release date. And while the leak put a kink in the duo's rollout plan, they fully embraced the moment and now have a hit on their hands to show for it.

Go behind the scenes of "Scream and Shout"!

"For like four months, I've been trying to keep this song with me and Britney under wraps and we did a really good job up until the last minute when it got leaked. And then we scrambled to try and get up to speed, and re-jigger our plan, because we had a different plan before the leak happened. So, everybody from Adam [Leber] to Larry [Rudolph] to Britney to Polo, Jimmy Iovine — we all scrambled to make sure our plan was solid and now we have a #1 in 17 countries, a great video response. It's been three days [and] it's been up online and it has 8 million views. It's a big global response." (As of press time, the video had over 12 million views.)

So, why does will keep hitting the studio with Brit? It's pretty simple. She's just awesome to work with. "She doesn't need the money. She does music because she loves it. And we are both in our careers where that's the only reason to do music now," he said. "It's refreshing to see an artist that has accomplished so much that is still humble and hardworking and hungry and thirsty for hot beats and hot hooks and global success just because we love it."