Check The Credits: Rock City Speak on Writing for Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, & More

01.31.2014

MUSIC

“The Rain” – Akon

Timothy: When we originally did “The Rain” it was for us. We were artists before we were songwriters. That was a song that we wrote when we were in the seventh grade. Akon’s DJ, Benny D, who’s a really good friend of ours, had just gotten off of the road with Akon. Benny heard the song and even though he knew we were doing the artist thing he suggested we play it for Akon. He said he’d support us in whatever way we needed. He told us that songwriting could be another avenue for us and another way for us to get recognized for our talents. We then rewrote the record to fit Akon and so it wouldn’t feel outdated. Akon heard the record and ended up recording it.

Theron: At the time we were flat out broke not knowing how we were going to pay rent and living off of Oodles and Noodles [laughs]. Akon paid us $5,000 for the song, which at the time was the most amount of money we had received at once. We were like “Okay, we’re going to write songs for whoever is paying this kind of money” [laughs]. We were just young kids trying to figure it out. It was a big deal for us. In that moment we thought we made it.

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