Legendary producer and songwriter Dallas Austin appeared on FOX Soul's Established with Angela Yee, where he talked about writing for artists like TLC, Boyz II Men, Brandy, Monica, Blu Cantrell, Pink, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, and why many of his hits have been written from a female's perspective.
During the clip, he described dating in the music industry and how relationships can become strained by dating another artist's ex. After explaining how he and Diddy both dated Kim Porter, Austin described the difficulty working with TLC after he and Chilli had broken up.
He explained that he wrote the song, "Cool," which ended up going to Gwen Stefani. However, TLC wanted the song and he refused to give it to them because the song was about Chilli and he was upset that she had started dating Usher.
"I wanted to kill everybody because honestly, I was friends with Usher too," Austin said 8:35 into the clip. "We're two different people. We always have been. But it was crazy because I moved to Miami. I was just so fed up. 'I got to get out of Atlanta. Things are going too crazy.' I moved to Miami, I sat up in that house. Me and her first broke up then. I started working on music in Miami, in this house where I set up all my equipment. But by the time I called and said, 'Hey, let's be together in Miami.' She said, 'No, no, no. It's a wrap. I'm done.'"
Dallas Austin went on to say that while he considered that the worst year of his life, he was actually going through one of the most successful stretches in his career.
"She goes and started dating Usher and I'm going mad. 'We got a kid. That's my girl,' this that and the other," he continued. "So I went through this whole year thinking it was the worst year of my life when really, I did all the Pink songs at that time. 'Just Like a Pill' and 'Don’t Let Me Get Me' was about my relationship I was in. I did Blu Cantrell's 'Hit Em Up Style.' I did Drumline. All of this stuff was going on but I must have had blinders on because I was in such that space that everybody gets to when you break up."
Before the clip concluded, Dallas Austin added that he took his energy and put it into all of the records he created during that time, further explaining that the best songwriting comes from heartbreak.
