Amy Winehouse Tributed By ‘VIBE,’ Salaam Remi Discusses Her New Material

You’ll have your choice of which August/September issue of VIBE to pick up — the one with the sultry, topless Kelly Rowland cover, or the one paying tribute to late pop-soul singer Amy Winehouse. For its quickly-put-together Amy feature (she was just laid to rest on Tuesday), the mag interviewed one of her closest collaborators, producer Salaam Remi.

“I’m in London now. I’m out here because [Amy and I] were supposed to go to a wedding today,” Remi told VIBE. “And before I could get to her yesterday she passed.”

Interestingly, Remi clears up some speculation in the article about the state of the new material he had been working on with Amy.

“We were in the middle of working on the album,” the producer noted. “She finished writing the record. We just hadn’t recorded.”

Perviously, the Daily Telegraph had quoted sources who said that songs were at demo stage but there was “a lot of material” available.

Winehouse was only 27 when she was found dead last weekend. “For the last couple of weeks we were video chatting regularly,” Remi continued. “I was just talking to Nas. Both her and Nas were born on September 14, so we were going to Barbados with all of them for her birthday. She really doesn’t look forward to her birthday, you know what I’m saying?”

VIBE joins other publications like NME and Blitz that have rushed ahead with tribute covers featuring Amy Winehouse.