The essay describes the collaborative process between producers and top-line writers in the contemporary music industry. It focuses on a songwriting session at Roc the Mic Studios in Manhattan, where Norwegian producer duo Stargate worked with songwriter and vocalist Ester Dean. The piece explains that producers create the instrumental elements of a song, while top-liners provide the melodies, lyrics, and hooks. This collaboration is common, as producers often send tracks to multiple top-liners, which can lead to complications if the same track is used for different artists, as happened with Beyoncé and Kelly Clarkson in 2009. The essay provides insight into Stargate's workflow, noting that they work with around 20 top-liners per year and create roughly 80 demos, of which 25 end up on records.