Topline and melody
For a musical idea that needs a memorable path through the track. Lysette works toward melodies with movement, breath, and a clear place for the listener to return.
Professional songwriting
Songwriter
for Hire
For songs that need a sharper emotional center, a melodic turn that stays, or words that can live inside the rhythm.
The song beneath the track
Write toward the feeling that will not let go.
Good songwriting gives a listener somewhere to stand. The melody may be simple, the production may be spare, but the song knows what it wants to leave behind. Lysette Titi writes from that place: listening for the emotional pressure inside a phrase, then finding the language, shape, and restraint that lets it arrive clearly.
As a Washington, D.C.-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and vocalist, Lysette brings more than two decades of work across R&B, soul, pop, hip-hop, and D.C. Go-Go into the room. Her writing is inseparable from her ear for a vocal. She hears where a lyric needs space, where a consonant needs to land, and where a melody can carry more truth by pulling back instead of reaching higher.
A writer’s ear
Make every choice serve the song.
The work is not to decorate a track with more words. It is to find the line, hook, or melodic gesture that gives the record its own pulse.
Lyrics and perspective
For a lyric that has the right feeling but has not found its most honest language yet. The aim is detail, rhythm, and a point of view that sounds lived rather than explained.
Vocal arrangement
For a song that needs its lead, responses, harmonies, and open air to work together. A writer who sings can hear how the arrangement changes the meaning of a line.
Built in collaboration
Start with what the record is trying to say.
Lysette’s professional story includes songwriting, recording, background, and session work alongside David Guetta, Galantis, MNEK, Pheelz, Monica, 702, Chucky Thompson, Rodney Jerkins, and Dallas Austin. Each room asks for a different kind of listening.
Some projects arrive with a complete chorus that needs a more lasting line. Some have a title and a feeling but no point of entry. Some are nearly finished until the vocal exposes what has not been said yet. The useful question is never how much can be added. It is what the song needs in order to feel inevitable once it begins.
Read The Washington Post’s note on Lysette’s voiceWriting with the voice in mind
R&B and soul songwriting that leaves room to feel.
R&B and soul can make a small choice feel enormous. A lyric placed just behind the beat can sound like hesitation, desire, or somebody deciding whether to tell the truth. A note held for one extra breath can turn an ordinary phrase into the line a listener remembers. That is why the writing has to stay close to the human voice. The lyric is not only read on a page. It has to survive the air between the singer and the listener.
Lysette’s process begins with the song’s emotional job. Is this a confession that needs to feel private even when the track is loud? A hook that should lift the room without losing its ache? A verse that needs to say less so the listener can bring more of themselves to it? Those questions guide the melody, the language, and the way the sections move. The goal is a song with enough shape to be clear and enough space to remain alive.
Before a line is finished, its rhythm matters. A phrase may be beautiful on the page and still need a different vowel, a cleaner turn, or one less word before it can move naturally through a singer’s mouth. Lysette brings that practical vocal attention to the writing, so the final song has room to breathe when the record is played, sung live, or heard alone.
That approach travels across adjacent sounds without flattening them into one style. Pop often asks for an immediate melodic doorway. Hip-hop may need a sung phrase that keeps the rhythm open and the emotional color present. A Go-Go-influenced record can call for response, momentum, and a line with enough lift for the room to answer. The genre changes, but the craft remains: find the detail that lets a song become more than its reference points.
Young, Sad, and Blue Reimagined is one way to hear that center hold. The project returns to one original song through six versions, including a D.C. Go-Go interpretation. Different arrangements bring different temperatures, but the writing remains the thread. It is a useful reminder that a strong song does not need to fight every production choice. It gives those choices somewhere honest to go.
Writing in collaboration also means knowing when not to force a solution. Sometimes a producer has already built the room and the lyric needs only one missing sentence. Sometimes an artist has the story but needs help finding a chorus that carries it. Sometimes the clearest contribution is a harmony map that reveals the emotional turn without replacing the artist’s voice. Lysette approaches the work as a collaborator, attentive to the project’s center rather than interested in making every record sound alike.
A clear way in
Bring the song, then name the need.
Share the brief
Send the track or concept, the style, the timeline, and the feeling you want the listener to carry away. A strong brief makes the first conversation more useful.
Choose the focus
Topline, lyric, chorus, vocal arrangement, or a wider songwriting conversation. Start with the specific job the song needs help doing.
Begin the conversation
Email the details directly so the creative fit, schedule, and next step can be considered with the song itself in view.
Frequently asked questions
Before the first line.
What kinds of songwriting projects can I inquire about?
Lysette welcomes professional inquiries for R&B, soul, pop, hip-hop, and songs that need a more melodic or emotionally detailed center. A first note is most useful when it includes the song or brief, the stage of the project, the writers or producers involved, and the feeling the record needs to carry.
Can Lysette collaborate on both lyrics and melody?
Yes. Lysette’s work as a singer-songwriter keeps lyric, melody, phrasing, and vocal delivery in the same conversation. The right contribution depends on the song, whether it needs a hook, a clearer emotional angle, a topline direction, or language that settles naturally into the rhythm.
What should I include in a songwriting inquiry?
Share the musical direction, a private listening link if one is available, the project timeline, and the specific role you would like Lysette to consider. Clear context makes it easier to tell whether the song and the collaboration are a genuine fit.
Can I hear Lysette’s own writing before reaching out?
Yes. Lysette’s Music page holds her current releases, including Young, Sad, and Blue Reimagined, which returns one song through six different arrangements while keeping its emotional center intact.
Hear the writing at work
Start with the feeling the song needs to leave behind.
Spend time with the current music, then bring the right creative conversation in.