Rich Harrison quickly made a name for himself in the urban music industry, scoring a number fresh-sounding, sample-driven dance-pop hits for the likes of Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, and Amerie right off the bat. Well, maybe not right off the bat. Harrison began his big-name production work in 1999, the year he contributed to Mary J. Blige's Mary. It was a nice résumé-builder, and it helped to set up his eventual big break. That day came in 2003 when the lead single to Beyoncé's much-touted debut album, Dangerously in Love, happened to be one of his productions. The song was called Crazy in Love, and it was highlighted by some crazy sampling, namely rattling percussion on the verses and blaring horns on the hook. The song, of course, became an enormous hit and propelled Dangerously in Love into the sales stratosphere. Unsurprisingly, the phone began ringing for Harrison, and his productions began making the superstar rounds. One song in particular made its way to the almighty Usher. That song didn't make the cut for Confessions (2004), granted, but it did get picked up by a resurgent Jennifer Lopez, who turned it into the song Get Right and chose it as the lead single for her Rebirth album (the Usher outtake in turn became a hot commodity among file-sharers). Around this same time, in early 2004, Harrison reunited with Amerie. He quietly had written and produced pretty much her entire debut album, All I Have (2002). Not much came of that album, commercially speaking, but Harrison and Amerie enjoyed much-improved numbers their second go-round, as -- surprise, surprise! -- Touch spawned a huge lead single, 1 Thing, this one again highlighted by wild sampling of an old Meters drum break. By this point, folks were beginning to take note of this Rich Harrison guy, and prominent critics such as Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times began toasting his work. All the while, Harrison's phone kept ringing and his future seemed mighty bright. ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi