Released: September 21, 2004

Songwriter: Gene Griffin Bobby Brown

Producer: Bloodshy & Avant

[Intro]
People can take everything away from you
But they can never take away your truth
But the question is
Can you handle mine?

[Verse 1]
They say I'm crazy
I really don't care
That's my prerogative
They say I'm nasty
But I don't give a damn
Getting boys is how I live
Some ask me questions
Why am I so real?
But they don't understand me
I really don't know the deal about my sister
Trying hard to make it right
Not long ago
Before I won this fight

[Chorus]
Everybody's talking all this stuff about me
Why don't they just let me live? (Tell me why)
I don't need permission, make my own decisions
That's my prerogative
That's my prerogative
(It's my prerogative)
It's the way that I wanna live
(It's my prerogative)
You can’t tell me what to do

[Verse 2]
Don't get me wrong
I'm really not souped
Ego trips is not my thing
All these strange relationships really gets me down
I see nothing wrong in spreading myself around

[Chorus]
Everybody's talking all this stuff about me
Why don't they just let me live? (Tell me why)
I don't need permission, make my own decisions
That's my prerogative
That's my prerogative
Everybody's talking all this stuff about me
Why don't they just let me live? (Tell me why)
I don't need permission, make my own decisions
That's my prerogative
That's my prerogative
It's the way that I wanna live
(It's my prerogative)
You can’t tell me what to do

[Bridge]
Why can't I live my life
Without all of the things
That people say?

[Chorus]
Everybody's talking all this stuff about me
Why don't they just let me live? (Tell me why)
I don't need permission, make my own decisions
That's my prerogative
They say I'm crazy
Everybody's talking all this stuff about me
Why don't they just let me live? (Tell me why)
(They say I'm nasty)
I don't need permission, make my own decisions
That's my prerogative
(It's my prerogative)

Britney Spears

Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer and actress. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, she performed acting roles in stage productions and television shows as a child before signing with Jive Records in 1997.

Spears’s first and second studio albums, …Baby One More Time and Oops!… I Did It Again, became international successes, with the former becoming the best-selling album by a teenage solo artist. Title tracks “…Baby One More Time” and “Oops!… I Did It Again” broke international sales records, with the former reaching number one in every country it charted in. In 2001, Spears released her self-titled third studio album, Britney, and played the starring role in the film Crossroads (2002). She assumed creative control of her fourth studio album, In the Zone, which yielded the worldwide success of the single “Toxic.”

In 2007, Spears’s much-publicized personal issues sent her career into hiatus. Her fifth studio album, Blackout, was released later that year, and spawned hits such as “Gimme More” and “Piece of Me”.