had recorded would be suitable for the final version. "No Scrubs" was one of the final tracks recorded for the album. It was originally written by Kandi Burruss, Tameka Cottle, and Briggs for the former two artists to record together as part of the girl group Xscape. However, Austin persuaded Briggs to give the song to TLC as their first single for FanMail, with Thomas singing the lead vocals. Austin further emphasized that it was a breakthrough for her, as he believed that she was more capable than being relegated to a secondary vocalist. Composition FanMail took on a new, futuristic style, due to the rapid advancement in technology heading into the new millennium such as the Y2K bug and Napster. This was effectively portrayed in the album's most popular song "No Scrubs" along with the music video, which embraces a modern emphasis on female strength and independence. The album contains several tracks featuring vocals by the computer modulated voice Vic-E, a talking android which is reminiscent of the "tour guide" on A Tribe Called Quest's 1993 studio album, Midnight Marauders. Initially, the android was created through the Macintosh's greeting voice as a replacement for Lopes, as she refused to work with the group. However, once she reconciled with them, she approved of the android and decided to include it on the album as a character. FanMail is an R&B and urban soul album, which includes tracks featuring funk, hip hop-inspired dance-pop, and ballads. Several producers were involved in the album's production, including Dallas Austin, Babyface, Jermaine Dupri, Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis. Throughout 17 tracks, TLC brought up issues of sexuality, insecurities, self-reliance, and vulnerability with resistant messaging. It fused elements of "new jill swing" and sounds created from a Roland TR-808, to form a "cyber-R&B masterpiece". On the first track "FanMail", Austin used multiple samples from the internet and movies in order to create a "space sound" that "will sound like what the album cover looks like". The background noise consisting of typewriters and printers was incorporated to represent the fan letters and fan mail, while Austin added a sample from an interview with Lopes commenting "all these conflicting fan mail", and created a hook with it. The song consisted of a sneaking bassline, vocal stutters, and glitches similar to that of dial-up Internet. However, in contrast to the album's dominating technological sound, "Unpretty" is an alternative pop