Alicia Keys and Jamaican artist Cham, as photographed on set of their music video for “Ghetto Story Chapter 2” in Jamaica in mid-2006.

Recorded and released in June, the collaboration was inspired by the original sequel “Ghetto Story” by Cham, which was the lead single off his album of the same name. Peaking at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales chart and No. 77 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also went No. 13 on the Rap Airplay chart while Cham’s Ghetto Story album rose to No. 53 on the Billboard 200 chart. Following the second part of the sequel, Cham also released the 3rd chapter with Akon and a 4th chapter with both Akon and Alicia. 

The video was shot in Jamaica by Sanaa Hamri, premiering on BET's 106 & Park on August 8, 2006 and entering the countdown three weeks later to debut at number nine, staying there for four days in a row. Eventually peaking at number five.

"Ghetto Story was written on the lake in Miami. Dave wanted me to kind of elaborate on my past and how I grew up between Sherlock Crescent, Marverly, Hughenden, Waterhouse, between Studio Mix and Jammy's Studio, and we just kind of filtered from there” explains Cham.

Cham later revealed in an interview with Two Bees TV that Alicia’s label J Records didn’t want her to fully commit to the collaboration: “You kinda hear stuff like labels weren’t pushing for her to shoot and she was the one who said nope, I’m going to do it in Jamaica. If you notice, even the Sean Paul and Beyonce. They were never in the same space together, never performed it together. You realize there’s a lot of politics in the music industry and she kinda broke down those politics with our collaboration.”

He continues: “I will never ever forget that she took the time out to really say ‘you know what? I don’t care what the label is saying, I want to do it in Jamaica. I don’t care what the label is saying, I want to come and perform the song with you live on stage … in front of a hardcore dancehall audience.”

Alicia and Cham joined forces again to perform the song for Swizz Beatz’s 43rd birthday in September 2021.