You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
I'm Rishikesh Hirway.
This episode contains explicit language.
Solange Knowles released her first album in 2002 at the age of 16.
Her third album, A Seat at the Table,
came out in September 2016 and debuted at number one on the Billboard charts.
It's gotten widespread critical acclaim,
including getting named Album of the Year by Pitchfork and by Vibe.
In this episode, Solange takes apart the song Cranes in the Sky.
The story starts in 2008 when Solange was in the studio with producer Rafael Sadiq.
This is Solange.
When I was actually working on Hadley Street Dreams, which is my second album,
I thought Raphael could be the perfect person to try to help me rework some of the production on the songs.
You know, we tried, but ultimately it just didn't work.
But he was just such a joy to work with.
I mean, he's a legend, and I learned...
So much just being in the room with him.
And on my way out, I just asked him, you know,
do you have any instrumentals laying around that you might want to give me?