There’s a lot of history behind the Kanye West-assisted “Extravaganza.” Producer and songwriter Mike City tells Rated R&B that the piano-laced tune was played for Foxx about five years before working on the album. By June 2006, the single became certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

8 on the Hot 100, which secured Foxx his first top 10 hit as a lead artist. “Unpredictable” became a dominant force on the Billboard charts. The key was to put a record in the space where everybody can sing along.” He could sing, play, produce and perform. “Everybody knew how talented he was when it came to music.

just a full entertainer,” he describes. Lilly didn’t feel any pressure when penning the song for Foxx instead, he felt motivated. It wrote itself, to be honest, and the rest is history.”

When the beat dropped, it just felt like I already heard the song before. “The intro on the track felt like one of those intros to a blaxploitation movie. If you nail this, it will be the first single,'” Harold tells Rated R&B. The sample from New Birth’s 1973 song “Wild Flower,” heard in the intro, laid the foundation for how the song would turn out.Īcclaimed songwriter Harold Lilly - who had placements with Brandy, Monica, Toni Braxton and more - remembers the first time he heard the instrumental. The title track, co-produced by Jim Jonsin and Bigg D, was released on October 18, 2005. Fortunately for Foxx, “Unpredictable” featuring Ludacris was the right move. Selecting the first single can sometimes be tricky, especially when it’s for a comeback album. Produced by Harold Lilly, Jim Jonsin and Bigg D Written by Derrick Baker, Harold Lilly, James Scheffer and Ludacris Collipark, RL and Harold Lilly) about their experiences crafting some of the singles, as well as some standouts. In celebration of the 15th anniversary of Unpredictable, Rated R&B spoke with a few of Foxx’s collaborators (Sean Garrett, Mike City, Mr. I let them know my ideas, and they would let me know if it was cool.” “We just linked up with the hottest cats. “The Jamie Foxx thing is how you get into your own thing, you sing your own songs, you write these cushy songs and try to be safe,” he explained. He told The Associated Press that he “didn’t want to do a ‘Jamie Foxx thing'” on this album. This time, he recruited more producers and songwriters to help shape what would become a musical masterpiece. He took a slightly different approach to Unpredictable compared to Peep This. With his new deal, Foxx started working on his sophomore album, which was initially titled Southern Gentleman, before being renamed Unpredictable. Two weeks before the film’s October 2004 release, it was announced that Foxx, who appeared on Twista’s Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Slow Jamz” with Kanye West, had signed a deal with Clive Davis’ label J Records.

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