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I just felt there was no place for me in music at that time,” she says. Hunte got her start as an aspiring singer, but strayed into songwriting as music became more “commercial. She made the song sound so close to the original,” says Hunte. “She’s never done a record with him and she also has my same vocal tone. But when Hunte and Sewell-Ulepic were asked if they thought someone else would be more appropriate for the chorus, Hunte suggested Alicia Keys. Jay-Z ended up writing all new verses inspired from the original lyrics and leaving Hunte on the hook. For him to be so open-minded about it, we just couldn’t be any more grateful and thankful.” Two female producers/writers and for him as a rapper to take our song - that’s not a combination you see a lot. “We were just so happy he wanted to honor our work and our production. The next day, Platt sent it to Jay-Z and he “loved it and recorded it that night,” Hunte recalls. “We all just looked at each other like, ‘if Biggie approves, then, send it to Jay,” she says. figure she kept by the computer fell as they played the track for Platt - a statue that had never moved before regardless of how loud they’ve blasted music, according to Hunte - she realized it was an omen. Hunte and Sewell-Ulepic were hesitant, though, being that they had sent the track for consideration already and were shut down.
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When they received negative reviews about the track, they were convinced it was doomed to the vault.īut then at a summer BBQ, EMI’s Jon “Big Jon” Platt heard the track and fell in love with it, realizing “it would be perfect for Jay-Z,” says Hunte. That was in February, and although they wrote the track as simply a way to voice their hometown longing, they secretly sent it to Roc Nation a month later in hopes that Jay-Z would like it and use it. “We said to ourselves, ‘we complain so much about New York - about the busy streets, about the crowds and the pushing, about the subway system - but I would trade that for anything right now.’ Before we left the hotel that night, we knew we would write a song about our city.” Her mother was ill at the time and I was sick that summer, and we were just down,” Hunte explains. “My writing partner and I were in London, missing home. Hunte created the track with Sewell-Ulepic after the two shared their homesick feelings during an overseas trip.