Dallas Austin just played “Nice & Slow” by Usher (which JD co-wrote alongside Brian and Brandon Casey of Jagged Edge, Manuel Seal + Usher).

JD and Usher wrote the song first and JD said they reached out to Jagged Edge to add something to it. “I freak you right I will, etc”

Dallas Austin said Left Eye was mad and she didn’t want to go to the studio to record, so he had to make a computerized rap voice in “FanMail” and “Silly Ho” on the album, “FanMail” by TLC.

Dallas Austin said he listened to one of Babyface’s records when he was producing, ‘Please Don’t Go’ by Boyz II Men because he didn’t have a lot of experience with ballads.

JD said “Let’s Get Married” by Jagged Edge was inspired by his gf at the time. She was arguing cause JD was spending too much time in the studio and she said, “you ain’t getting no younger, when we gonna get married” and then he wrote LGM with Jagged Edge.

Dallas Austin said “What About Your Friends” by TLC was about Pebbles (we all know the story). He said the girls were venting about their treatment from her. “Man, we thought we was family, we thought they was loyal”. So “What About Your Friends” was born.

JD just played the demo for “Pullin’ Me Back” by Chingy and Tyrese and this n*ggas singing voice has me DEAD. Now I want to hear all of J.D’s demos

“Pullin’ Me Back” by Chingy and Tyrese samples Jaco Pastorius’
‘Portrait of Tracy’ (1976).

Dallas Austin produced and wrote “Hit Em’ Up Style (Oops!)” by Blu Cantrell. He said the song was inspired by a cartoon in Merrie Melodies, specifically the horns. The show was an animated series by Warner Bros. from 1931 to 1969.

“You Make Me Wanna...” by Usher was the song that L.A Reid loved the most and thought it was “the one”. But Usher didn’t love the song at first. He preferred “My Way” and “Nice & Slow” but ended up loving YMMW by the end of recording it.

Dallas Austin said he wrote “FourFiveSeconds” by Rihanna “35 times” because he wanted them to like it. 10 songwriters are credited on FFS including Rihanna, Mike Dean, Kanye, Paul McCartney.

Kanye told Dallas “make it harder, it needs to be rougher”. When he first wrote it, it didn’t have Rihanna on it. Dallas said he has over 35 versions of “FourFiveSeconds” on his phone.

Da Brat was at JD’s house for 2 years before he figured out which record she should debut with. He said he was going “crazy” because he couldn’t figure it out. JD wanted the record “Funkafied” but he called Brat and she said, “you gon’ stay on this, we’re gonna do it together”.

“Funkdafied” by Da Brat contains the sample: “Between the Sheets” by The Isley Brothers.

Dallas Austin said when him and Chilli broke up, he started to write songs, “Cool” was one of them. L.A wanted him to give it to TLC, but he didn’t want that to happen. Years later, Gwen Stefani said she wanted to work with Austin and “Cool” became hers.

Austin said that “Cool” was perfect for Gwen and Tony Kanal from (No Doubt), especially to describe their relationship at that moment.

JD said when T-Boz was in the studio dancing and vibing, it gave him a different type of energy when writing and producing “Kick Your Game” for the “Crazy, Sexy, Cool” album by TLC.

Dallas Austin said that the original version of “Creep” by TLC sounded too “country”. He said he was going through a bunch of crazy shit with one of his earlier girlfriends, he said he fucked around on her and went to his friends house and went through his poetry book...

He said the poetry in the book sounded like it was describing his girl, and it turns out she was messing around on him too. He said that he wanted the horns on the songs to sound like “jazz” or like Pete Rock and Q-Tip and all those “NY n*ggas”.

JD said he wrote “My Little Secret" by Xscape to mimic similar melodies in “Nice & Slow” by Usher. He also said in “Just Kickin' It” he wanted to write a story and flip the gender roles. Basically like “you ain’t never heard some girls talk about cheating this way”.

“Street Symphony” by Monica was written + produced by Dallas. He said that Mo was always in the projects around that time and only dating folks with golds in their teeth. And she started dating C-Murda. Clive Davis said that Mo shouldn’t be dating nobody w/ “Murda” in their name.

He said it started to get dangerous around that time and that’s why the line: “If I can't get you outta the streets. Then you don't need to be with me” was put in “Street Symphony”.

JD is all over the place trying to describe “Confessions” (All Bad) by Usher. I’m trying my best to grab a tidbit from this portion but man... LOL

Dallas co-wrote and produced "Just like a Pill” by P!Nk. He said he was taking ecstasy pills and everything was going great... BUT then him and his girl broke up and he realized he effed up. Which prompted the lyrics:

“And I swear, you're just like a pill” by P!nk.

LA Reid wanted Dallas Austin to write R&B records with Pink in 2002 and Dallas wasn’t trying to do that. He said that he believed that the “Just Like A Pill” direction was the way to go.

JD said “Like You” by Bow Wow and Ciara makes him the most proud to say that he wrote, especially the hook. Because it was “accidental”.

iaintneverhadnobodyshowme allthethingsthatyoucanshowmeandthe.....

JD said that Ciara wasn’t on “Like You” by Bow Wow at first. He then said he reached out to Johnta Austin and the rest is history....