I found some records at the fair on Sunday, one of them being "Shame on the world" (1975) by The Main Ingredient. Nice soul group. I'm eating breakfast listening to it this morning. Suddenly something caughts my attention. What's that piano keys falling down...? It sounds so similar to.... No, that can't be!
I run to the record player. The track is called "Let me prove my love to you" and it has THE SAME PIANO RIFF, SAME RHYTM and SAME PIANO FIGURES we're hearing now in "You don't know my name" by Alicia Keys. (For those in the don't know: that young, thin black diva who plays all that piano by herself; the song in the clip where she works at a drugstore and offers coffee to the same guy every day.)
The piano riff and its side piano keys falling down (so recognizable) are exactly the same, so I go to AMG and look at the credits of the AK track. The MI track is credited to Williams-Clark-Bailey; "You don't know my name", to BAILEY-Kent-Keys-Lilly-West-WILLIAMS. So they must be the same guys.
Doesn't sound as a sample; I think the motif was re-played and new lyrics added. Maybe someone who has the original CD booklet can check this?
Bailey and Williams doesn't appear in other credits, so it wasn't their idea. I seriously doubt Alicia knew this now obscure record, released before she was born. Who's behind this, then? Maybe Easy Mo Bee, accomplished hip hop rapper and producer (of Miles Davis "Doo bop" fame), who was at the controls in the AK record.
But did Alicia say anything about The Main Ingredient in interviews? Why do I think that NOOOOOO :)