"Right Here (Departed)" | ||||
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Single by Brandy | ||||
from the album Human | ||||
Released | August 13, 2008 | |||
Recorded | 2008 | |||
Studio | 2nd Floor (Los Angeles, California) | |||
Length | 3:38 | |||
Label | Epic | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) |
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Brandy singles chronology | ||||
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"Right Here (Departed)" is a song by American recording artist Brandy Norwood. It was written by Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins and The Writing Camp members Evan "Kidd" Bogart, Victoria Horn, Erika Nuri, and David "DQ" Quiñones and produced by Jerkins for her fifth studio album, Human (2008). Not recorded until late into the production of the album, it set much of the tone for the final Human track listing as it was the first out of several new songs Norwood and Jerkins recorded together following his absence on her previous album Afrodisiac (2004). Its lyrics chronicle a woman's talks about mutual support with loved ones.
Picked as the album's leading single and Norwood's first release with Epic Records following her departure from the Atlantic label in 2005, the song premiered on her official webpage on August 13, 2008. Her first release in four years, it was officially serviced to US radio on August 25, 2008, prior to receiving a major release between September 2008 and March 2009 on most international territories. While "Right Here (Departed)" became a moderate hit in the US, where it reached number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100, the track emerged as her highest-charting single in years, reaching the top ten of the French Singles Chart, top twenty on the Japan Hot 100, and the top of Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart.
An accompanying music video for "Right Here (Departed)" was directed by Little X and filmed in Los Angeles, California in August 2008. Loosely inspired by the art direction of Francis Lawrence's 2007 science fiction film I Am Legend, it depicts Norwood as an angel, who is crossing over to the intermediate state and coming back into her family and friend's lives, comforting them just with her singing. It reached the top of BET's 106 & Park countdown and was voted number sixty-nine on BET: Notarized Top 100 videos of 2008. Part of the set-lists of Norwood's Human World Tour (2009), the song was performed live on several televised events, including Total Request Live, The Tyra Banks Show and BET's Just Human special (2008).