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...We quickly head to the Fifth Avenue offices of J Records, where Leslie is scheduled to meet with label executive Steve Ferrera.
Ferrera hopes Leslie will write and produce tracks for the debut album by Katherine McPhee, last seasons American Idol runner-up. When Leslie arrives, Ferrera hands him a picture of McPhee. As you can see, says Ferrera, shes obviously extremely hot looking. (Leslie nods.) If I put a piece of shit on a CD, it will guarantee a million sales, Ferrara continues. But if we get this thing right, its Kelly Clarkson. Its 15 million records.
Ferrera slides in a CD of a demo song McPhee has already recorded. I want to see how urban she can go. Believably. The music begins. This song is called Open Toes, shouts Ferrera over the deafening beat. Its about hot shoes with open toes, he yells. The only lyric I manage to make out goes Cuz I know that boys, they like these open toes.
This is the real Tin Pan Alley side of the business. A new star gets designated by the label and then later, someone has to write the songs for her. In this case, Ferrera hopes to set up McPhee with Timbaland (perhaps the most lauded hip-hop producer of our time, who recently lent his talent to the new Justin Timberlake album), Babyface (who twice set the record for longest run at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart), and Leslie. All three will end up working with McPhee; Leslies doing two songs.
Here is a demo clip of "Open Toes":
www.sendspace.com/file/ntk.luj
(WARNING EAR BLEEDING MAY OCCUR)
