Exclusive: How Eminem Ended Up Executive Producing Skylar Grey's Debut

Eminem has signed on to executive produce Skylar Grey's major-label debut, Don't Look Down, due this spring, and the singer/songwriter said his involvement in the project was natural, given their close working relationship over the past couple of years.

Grey contributed to Eminem's Recovery album, penning his hit "Love the Way You Lie," and she even worked with him on Slaughterhouse's Shady Records debut this year, so it was only right to keep things moving.

"Ever since we started working together, I've been playing him some of my music, and he just slowly became more involved, so we made it official," Grey exclusively told, after it was announced that Em would oversee her LP.

The Wisconsin native has been working on her album for a few years now, explaining that the oldest song on the album was penned about two years ago, while the most recent one was recorded only last week. One of those new tracks will be the Eminem-featured single "C'mon Let Me Ride," set to debut December 11 with an accompanying video.

"Usually what happens is that I'll come up with an idea, or I'll have a piece of a song, and then I'll go to Detroit and play it for him or play a few different things for him," Grey said, breaking down the recording process with Em. "If he's feeling something, he'll run with it on his own for a while and then we reconvene and see where we're at."

"With 'C'mon Let Me Ride,' there was a lot of back and forth. The original version of the song, we all really liked the hook, but he suggested that I go back and revisit my verses, which was good. So I did that and brought it back to him, and he added his part, and then he also suggested that I add a bridge of my own. So we were bouncing it back and forth until we got it right."

Grey says the first single will bring a more fun and sarcastic side of her personality to the table and the video will really paint the full picture. " 'C'mon Let Me Ride' is sarcastic, because I'm making fun of how the media really over-sexualizes everything. That's where the inspiration comes from," she explained. "There's pieces of [the song and video] that are sarcastic, because I'm a very serious person most of the time, but there's also parts of it that show who I really am versus who a lot of other girls are. It shows the contrast.

"The whole album is very multifaceted and shows a lot of different sides of my personality#8212; including the more melancholy stuff that people know me better for — but I'm also showing this more fun sarcastic side of my personality that I've never shown in my music before, so you get to see all of it."

Look out for "C'mon Let Me Ride" on December 11.