Elsewhere

Album: Untitled (2009)
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Songfacts®:

  • At a listening party for various media outlets Kelly explained that he played this breakup/make-up ballad for his girl over the phone at a time when they were having problems with their relationship, and she came right home. "I got my baby back with this one," Kelly said.
  • Songwriter and producer Chris "Deep" Henderson (Case, Jamie Foxx, Trey Songz) told HipHopDX.com how this song first caught R. Kelly's attention: "At one point, [R. Kelly] had the 'Blame It' track... before Jamie Foxx did," he explained. "He decided not to use the song... [but] that's what got me in the door to 'Hey, what else do you have?' So when I was called into the meeting, I thought it just was going to be a meeting with R. Kelly. So I came [into the meeting], and [there were] a bunch of other producers there…it was funny because once I had got my seat... I would see other people walk in the room after me and they had the same shocked look on their face, like 'I'm about to have a meet- aw, damn!'... and judging from [which other producers were] in the lobby.

    The first thing I took out [were] these up-tempo, club banger tracks. I did that for a while [but] then I played one that I was almost finished with, and when I played [that track], R. Kelly pulled his recorder out and started singing into it, like he was starting to vibe to it... so I was like 'Shoot, if he's open to listening to unfinished stuff, I've got one more for you. It's just piano and me singing this idea, but if you like it, I'll go and produce it.' I played him [what would become the beat to] 'Elsewhere' and he was in shades and a hat the whole time, kind of just playing it cool but midway through 'Elsewhere,' his shades came off, he stood up and just started staring at the speakers, so I knew that I had him."

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