Ciara, Jazze Pha said, "What was really lacking is the Janet Jackson, high-energy dance [music]. Ciara fills that void. She's pretty, she can dance, she can write music, and kids love her. Everyone loves her." Recording After graduating from Riverdale High School in Riverdale, Georgia in 2003, she was signed by LaFace Records executive, L.A. Reid, whom she was introduced to by Jazze Pha. She began production on her debut album later that year. Recording sessions for the album took place at Chocolate Factory, Chicago, IL; Circle House Studios, Miami, FL; Darp Studios, Atlanta, GA; Doppler Studios, Atlanta, GA; Futuristic Recording Studios, Atlanta, GA; Ground Breaking Studios, Atlanta, GA; Hit Factory Criteria, Miami, FL; Hitco, Atlanta, GA; Patchwerk Recordings, Atlanta, GA; Phoenix Ave. Studios, Atlanta, GA; Sony Music Studios, New York, NY; Studio 609 Recordings, Philadelphia, PA; The Studio, Philadelphia, PA. In early 2004, Ciara wrote a demo with record producer Sean Garrett, co-writer of Usher's crunk hit "Yeah." After hearing a demo, crunk producer Lil Jon, who also produced and was featured on "Yeah", began to work on the full record, to have it released on LaFace. Originally, Ciara was reluctant to work with the track produced by Lil Jon, reportedly disliking crunk music at first. However, she decided to use the song to go against the grain and deliver lyrics in contrast of female promiscuity lines delivered by fellow female artists. To give her a title to stand out, Lil Jon dubbed Ciara as the "Princess of Crunk&B." Dubbed the female counterpart to "Yeah" and fellow crunk hit "Freek-a-Leek" by Petey Pablo, Laface looked to capitalize on the success of the previous songs. In addition to working with Jazze Pha, who produced most of the album, Lil Jon, and Garrett, she worked with several other Atlanta-based writers and producers including Bangladesh, Johntá Austin, Jasper Cameron, and others, while featuring collaborations from Atlanta's T.I. and Ludacris. R&B singer R. Kelly wrote and produced a track. When talking about the album's theme, Ciara said it was universal, stating, "It's about everybody. You'll have songs with different emotions, happy, sad, 'my heart is broken.' What everybody goes through." On her success with the preluding title track, Ciara said, "I'm very content right now. I take everything a day at a time. Every time I hear good news, I'm shouting out, 'Praise God.' Everybody around me is so excited, I still haven't