I Need Air

Album: Magnetic Man (2010)
Charted: 10
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Songfacts®:

  • Magnetic Man is an UK dubstep group comprising producers and DJs Skream, Benga and Artwork. They signed to Columbia Records in February 2010, and this is their first single on the label.
  • The song features Brooklyn-native singer/songwriter/producer Angela Hunte singing the hook. Hunte is best known for co-writing the original version of Jay-Z's smash hit, "Empire State of Mind."
  • In an interview on the Virgin Media site, Artwork explained that it was Hunte who penned the song's vocal hook. He said: "When we were writing the song with Angela, she's an amazing songwriter and it was her that came up with the melody for 'I Need Air', she hummed it to us before sitting down and working on the words so we saw the whole thing come together before our very eyes. Within the first ten minutes we were just like "this is amazing, I want to hear it again" and for the first few weeks having finished it, it was just stuck on repeat in my car, spinning round, and round, and round."

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