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Song Stories

“Ghetto Dreams”

Common feat. Nas | 2011

Common's ninth album The Dreamer/The Believer was a collaborative effort with producer No I.D., who the rapper has worked with since early in his career. Common worked with New York emcee Nas on "Ghetto Dreams," which features lyrics that some women found offensive and uncharacteristic for Common. "I was like, 'I want a b---- that look good and cook good,'" he explained. "I was just thinking about being in the 'hood… She look raw and she could cook and she could get very elegant, but at the same token she has the know-how in the street.”

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

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