Check the Credits: Elijah Blake Tells The Stories on Writing Hits For Usher, Rihanna, Trey Songz & More

“No Love Allowed” by Rihanna

“No I.D. and I were having this conversation where he was telling me about a quote Will Smith gave: ‘If you and I get on a treadmill at the same time only two things can happen, you get off first, or I die trying to outlast you.’ Long story short, we both started talking bout how that related directly to us being so competitive and we decided to do a 10 song challenge. 10 songs from scratch, where he creates the beats and I write and record them in 24 hours. Half way through, we get the news that [Roc Nation President] Jay Brown is stopping by the studio and needs songs for Rihanna. The concept hit me and I ran it by my ARTium family, Xplicit, and in about 20 minutes we had “No Love Allowed.” Jay heard it and loved it, and played it for Rih who loved it enough to record it and keep it. I remember hearing her final vocal and thinking Wow, she meant that.'”