A song about a woman's value and the respect she deserves
Alicia Keys was twenty-one and already a critics' darling when arrived as the follow-up to Fallin'. She wrote it with Erika Rose, and the song is a lecture wrapped in silk -- a demand for respect delivered so gracefully you almost miss the steel underneath. Peaked at number seven on the Hot 100 in 2002.
Keys didn't ask for equality. She stated it as obvious fact.