TWENTY years after its release, 'Never Leave You' by Lumidee and Busta Rhymes is still a banger.
Lumidee Cedeño joined the rapper for the catchy track which propelled her to fame.
While she's teamed up with huge stars like Shaggy and Pitbull in her career, she never quite landed a track like 2003's Never Leave You (Uh Ohhh, Uh Ohhh).
It was the debut single on her first album Almost Famous and it peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100.
It also topped the charts in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Lumidee is still working in the music industry and regularly performs at festivals and gigs.
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She grew up in New York City's East Harlem neighbourhood and said that she was inspired by Mary J.Blige and Missy Elliott.
The 39-year-old started working with DJ Tedsmooth who lived in the neighbourhood and was a well-known face in the clubs.
It was her track "Never Leave you" which had major record labels snapping at her heels.
She signed with Universal Records when she was just a teenager and had two weeks to put together her first LP, Almost Famous.
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"Pretty much, the album was just the first songs I’d ever written and recorded. We really didn’t do anything new for it,” she told Billboard.
She has a 14-year-old daughter, who she doesn't share photos of on her social media.
Nicki Minaj's 2023 single Red Ruby da Sleeze samples Lumidee's "Uh Ohhh" and the beat.
Lumidee spoke of the moment she was contacted by Nicki's team for permission to use her tune.
"I do get these emails a lot through my administrator, but I’m reading and I’m like, ‘Oh wait – Nicki Minaj?’ Obviously I’m excited! Like, who’s not a Nicki Minaj fan?” she told Billboard.
“I got even more excited because I have a 14-year-old daughter and she’s a Barb! She goes to war for Nicki Minaj.
"So I’m like, if this happens, you know all the cool points I’m gonna get?”
During the pandemic, she dropped her third album, 1013.
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