Alicia Keys - You Don't Know My Name

[Trauma-san]

This song gives me hope for music, lol.  Honestly.  Everything everybody makes, commercially, anymore is just horrible, talentless crap trying to capture whatever crowd they think they can get money from.  They make songs that are explicit because they think teenagers will want to buy it, or they make videos with women shaking their ass like we all don't have that at home.  Everything's such a sellout, nobody is real or true to themselves, or creative.

With the exception of maybe, only, this song.  (at least for the moment).  This is some CLASSIC type stuff... this is a song that you could play 30 years from now, and it will still be a good, solid song.  

It starts out with piano (of course, it's Alicia keys), nice vocals in the background filling out the track, nice and slow and pretty.  It has orchestration, that doesn't sound like a cheap casio keyboard, and isn't just a loop somebody sampled.  It's actually composed for the song, like it should be.  She's singing to some guy, and the hook is amazing... "And It feels like OOOOOOOOohhhhh, You don't know my name. " She sounds like she means it, and she's singing to somebody she knows, i'm sure... then she goes on, and sings about their first kiss, and how she can remember it was on a thursday.  She doesn't get explicit, but yet says "I can't wait for the first time"... why? Because she has class, and doesn't have to say "I'm gonna ride your dick like a motorbike" (which I heard on some other song today).  The next hook has the line "Will you ever know?"... then she does a creative little spoken part that doesn't even rhyme, about how the guy doesn't know how much she likes him.  She keeps going back to the hook about every 2 lines, but it doesn't get old, because it's so pretty.  There's people singing backup and just ambient vocals all through the track.  

Then she breaks it down, and the voiceover comes back, where she's just talking, and calls the guy up on the phone.  You dont' hear him, so she has to tell the story of what he's saying, and goes on to introduce herself, and basically she's asking him out.  You find out that she works at a coffee shop, and just talks real to the guy, about how it is working there, how she sees him every thursday, she knows what he orders.  Just by a phone call, she paints this big vivid picture of what the song's all about: a woman who works at a coffee shop and sees this guy, he gave her his number, and she finally called him up.  

Simple song, beautifully done.  This girl is good, really, really good.

[Lord Funk]

One for you trivia buffs...

... Kanye's beat for this beat was rejected by Jay-Z for The Blueprint album. More fool him

[infinite59]

Nice post Trauma.  Your exactly right.  Alicia Keys is a for real musician.  Most these acts are entertainers; not for real artists and musicians.  Alicia Keys is going to be around for a long time.  And I've noticed she seems to be the only female artist who hasn't totally turned into a whore by the time the second album came around.

..... and what about Kanye West?

[Lil Jay]

This is some CLASSIC type stuff... this is a song that you could play 30 years from now, and it will still be a good, solid song.  

exactly, this song is a classic in my eyes. i dont get tired of it, I can listen to it over and over again, and I've listened to it at least once a day ever since i heard it for the first time, man in can play this 10x in a row and it will be all good. theres so many parts i like...the "Did I mention you about to miss a good thing" or "and I swear on my mother and father it feels like ooohooohooohoo" part....and i love the way she pronounces "itttttt" in the "Will you ever know it?" part..this is on some next level stuff.

and yea, this song is something over 6 minutes, and they pass like seconds not minutes..you would think its around 3 minutes or so...its a trip

[bez]

Yer dope song, dope artist.  Need more like her in the business.

[LyRiCaL_G]

man ive said it for time, alicia be one of the most talented cats out today easily..........she by far the leadin female in music anyways

[PLANT]

This chick is amazing....Amazing talent, amazing looks and amazing personality.

[Kaidy]

I really like the song, but I have a few beefs with it.

1. The beat sounds unfinished. Kanye just used the drums from the sample, he didn't add to them, so the snare is really quiet and dull and to me it feels like the beat never really gets started. The sample and what he does with it is great, just needed something extra imo

2. the talking outro gets on my nerves. yea its cute the first few times, but they shoulda left it for the video. I would've preferred another verse or perhaps just some shorter ad-libs. Tha part goes on too long.


but apart from that i love it and I think Alicia is one of music's brightest talents, even though her writing still needs development, that was the main drawback of the new album for me. The songs were delivered beautifully but didn't have much substance.

[T-Dogg]

I can dig Rodzilla about that spoken part in the end, but otherwise this is the shit... Some real music. Not enough of that coming out these days, not in any music genre. And it is so true that Alicia is on a totally other level compared to most of the female artists out there. She keeps it classy, ain't no whoring going on on her records. Thank God there's somebody like this left.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Great talent, great song. Nuff said

[Lincoln]

Very good song.

[.:Hercy Buggz:.]

I Love Alicia Keys her new album is tight and she keeps the soul alive..Thats some real music

[I`m Wayne Brady bitch!]

The track is pure beauty . It`s music that you can feel , I hope people open their eyes for real music and throws their comercial crap in the trash

[Trauma-san]

Wow, i'm stunned everybody else saw the beauty in it.  There's hope for black music yet.

[.:Hercy Buggz:.]

The remix is fuckin tight some Jazz Shit and tight rap by the one and Only Skills...I love Alica Keys