songs in a minor alicia keys album cover

During this time, Keys collaborated with Jay-Z on ' Empire State of Mind'. The Element of Freedom, Keys' fourth studio album, was released in December 2009 it was preceded by the lead single ' Doesn't Mean Anything', co-written with Kerry Brothers, Jr. The songs 'As I Am' (Intro) and 'Prelude to a Kiss' were written solely by Keys. She also collaborated with Linda Perry on the songs 'The Thing About Love', 'Sure Looks Good to Me' and ' Superwoman', for which she was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 2009. Keys wrote several of the songs with collaborator Kerry Brothers, Jr., including 'Go Ahead' and 'Where Do We Go from Here'.

Her third studio, As I Am, was released in November 2007. A music journalist for The Times wrote that The Diary of Alicia Keys 'confirmed her place in musical history'. Several of the songs were written solely by Keys, including 'Harlem's Nocturne', 'Dragon Days', 'Feeling U, Feeling Me' (Interlude) and the single, ' If I Ain't Got You', and she produced most of the album herself. Keys co-produced the song 'Heartburn' with Timbaland and worked with Kanye West on ' You Don't Know My Name'. In addition to working with previous collaborator Kerry Brothers, Jr., Keys also collaborated with several others for the album. Keys released her second album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, in December 2003. ' A Woman's Worth', written by Keys and Erika Rose, is a ' jazz-tinged' song with lyrical content on how men should treat and respect women. The album's official first single, ' Fallin'', written and produced solely by Keys, topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was co-written by Keys with Jermaine Dupri and Joshua Thompson and contains a sample of Ol' Dirty Bastard's track ' Brooklyn Zoo'. Prior to the release of Songs in A Minor in June 2001, her song ' Girlfriend' was released to US radio in earlier in the year as a promotional song 'to introduce' Keys. She signed with Columbia Records at age 15, later leaving Columbia to sign with Arista Records and then J Records. Keys began composing songs she would later include on her debut studio album, Songs in A Minor at age 14. It continued a bloodline from Etta James, Gladys Knight, Aretha, Esther Phillips and Roberta Flack into the hip hop age, and was ultimately made possible by Keys' astonishing musical sensibilities.American singer-songwriter, pianist, and music producer Alicia Keys has written and produced for her five studio albums, in collaborations, for other artists and for film and theater. Oh yes, the original album - it still stands strong 10 years later, as a masterpiece of contemporary soul songwriting and arrangement. It's a blaxploitation theme looking for a film, and why it never made the album is anybody's guess. What makes the disc really special, however, is the previously unreleased Ghettoman, a moody, edgy inner city lament made eerily beautiful by a jangling piano. Most of all, though, what is shown proves how dedicated Keys is to making music.ĭisc two collects together alternate mixes of tunes like A Woman's Worth (a tastefully inventive vintage hip hop version, featuring Nas) and the sparser Butterflyz as it was heard in the 2002 film Drumline elsewhere, three live recordings from a Seattle show display her accomplished musicianship and easy way with an audience.

She's equally open in her delight and obvious surprise at the album's success.

She talks forthrightly about the battles with her first label, Columbia - they trashed this album, and wanted her to turn her into a standard RnB bunny she refused, they wouldn't let her leave, and it almost crushed her. Keys herself is funny, charming and remarkably candid. The specially-made documentary tells her story up to Songs in A Minor's claiming of five trophies at the 2002 Grammy Awards, setting itself against dramatic New York footage and making room for entertaining comments from people who worked with her. She then goes on to talk each track with an enthusiasm for every aspect of the process.

The extensive booklet opens with the singer's simple but impassioned mission statement about New York - very much part of the sleeve design - and how the city's streets fused with her classical training to allow the then-teenager to express herself so vividly. And this is because it digs fairly deep into who Alicia Keys is and what she was about when she made this stunning debut, now celebrating its 10th anniversary. This is an extravagant package that works beautifully on two levels, either as the perfect complement to the original album - included here, obviously - or as the very best place to start. Three discs, one of which is a DVD swish silver cut-out, fold-out packaging sleevenotes by Quincy Jones and track annotation by the singer herself.

Songs in a minor alicia keys album cover