She Don't Really Care_1 Luv

Album: Here (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • Alicia Keys sings on this hometown anthem about a girl from a migrant background, now living in New York City. The young woman's low self-esteem results in her looking for fulfillment in men, but she inevitably ends up with the wrong type

    She picking all the wrong ones
    And she's looking for the right one in the wrong place
    You remember her face? The prettiest face, prettiest face


    The first part of the track blends into "1 Luv," where Keys shows the woman's learning curve

    All along I've ignored what I've always known
    That the chair I've been sitting on is a throne
    Affection kneels at the seat of my soul
  • Keys premiered the song during her set at the Apple Music Festival in London in September 2016. She explained: "It's really the most purposeful and most intentional that I've ever written music before, ever, and it's all about New York City in so many ways, which is why I'm bringing you into my world a little bit."
  • Keys produced the song with her husband MC/producer Swizz Beatz. She told UK newspaper The Sun that working with her spouse on the track came as a huge surprise.

    "We are very different; we are totally different, which is what makes us cool. That makes us really go together well. The day we started writing She Don't Really Care he came by the studio to visit and said 'I think we should write a song tonight'.

    But I was doing my own thing and was good. But then later we got into the car and we wrote She Don't Really Care. In the car. It was the most interesting, fun song."
  • This features an appearance by acclaimed jazz composer and vibraphonist Roy Ayers.
  • The latter half of the song samples Nas' Illmatic track "One Love," which itself borrowed from The Heath Brothers' 1975 tune '"Smilin' Billy Suite Pt. II". Nas actually appears on "Elevate (Interlude)," the track that follows "She Don't Really Care" on Here.

    The song also interpolates Little Feat's 1973 tune "Fool Yourself."

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