Production
Rowland had been working on the conception of her second solo album on and off since 2004, with some of her early recordings — such as the Bryan Michael Cox-produced "Bad Habit" — even being used on the Destiny's Child's albums Destiny Fulfilled (2004) and Destiny's Child: Live in Atlanta (2006). The album's first draft, entitled My Story, saw her actually writing and recording with a wider range of well-known contemporary R&B producers and artists as she wanted to go "in the urban, more R&B route " with the album, involving Big Tank, Patrick "J. Que" Smith, Rich Harrison, Rodney Jerkins, and Robin Thicke. Female rappers Remy Ma and Shawnna also lent their voices to guest parts. Anxious to avoid hasty productions as on previous album Simply Deep (2002), Rowland took a wider role in the production of the album: she co-wrote the majority of the songs and shared ideas in which one to produce. "I wrote a lot on this record and it's especially from me ," she said of the album. "It's more R&B and it definitely has a feel-good vibe to it as well."
A few months before the scheduled release of My Story however, Rowland felt the album was not going into the direction she had previously envisioned, and thus, she asked to revamp the album. "It was basically a list of songs that I put together about the past three years of my life, with love and relationships," she said of the original track listing. "And I remember listening to the record, and I was just like, 'I don't want this to be too deep to where, you know, lose people.' And the record was too full of midtempos and ballads, so I wanted to bring it up a little bit." Rowland eventually consulted new producers to collaborate on the album, including Mysto & Pizzi, Sean Garrett, Scott Storch, and Atlanta-based Polow da Don, who contributed the single "Like This," a duet with rapper Eve, to the album.
In addition, the singer decided to rename the album. "I really put my heart and soul into this record," she said, "and not only am I excited that everyone's going to hear the music, I'm looking forward to people getting to hear the real me. That's the reason I called the album Ms. Kelly. Because the title is all about respect, being an adult and that's how I feel about my life, and my music." Rowland cited former bandmate Beyoncé Knowles, and singers Brandy and Whitney Houston as major inspirations while recording her album.
Read more about this topic: Ms. Kelly
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“To expect to increase prices and then to maintain them at a higher level by means of a plan which must of necessity increase production while decreasing consumption is to fly in the face of an economic law as well established as any law of nature.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“It is part of the educator’s responsibility to see equally to two things: First, that the problem grows out of the conditions of the experience being had in the present, and that it is within the range of the capacity of students; and, secondly, that it is such that it arouses in the learner an active quest for information and for production of new ideas. The new facts and new ideas thus obtained become the ground for further experiences in which new problems are presented.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)
“... if the production of any commodity necessitates the sacrifice of human life, society should do without that commodity, but it can not do without that life.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)