Producer Salaam Remi heaped praise on Amy Winehouse on the first anniversary of her death, insisting the late singer "left behind inspiration" for "another generation".
The hitmaker learned of his friend's death on 23 July last year (11) when he was on his way to her London home, and he was stunned to find the neighbourhood packed with devastated fans and the media.
He tells The Hollywood Reporter, "I was on my way over, I was picking up some food in Shepherd's Bush (west London)... and by the time I got there, there was press and people everywhere."
Remi, who worked with Winehouse on several songs, is convinced his friend leaves a lasting legacy in her work, and he hopes it will inspire her fans for years to come.
He adds, "Over this last year of looking at Amy Winehouse and what's going on there, what I felt was that it wasn't even songs that she left behind. She left behind inspiration.
"She will inspire another generation and another set of people. She might have collectively 20 or 30 songs that she's released for her actual recording career but I feel that she inspired many other artists to now dig back into her artistry. She was inspired by Ms. Dynamite, by Ella Fitzgerald, by Donna Washington, by Lauren Hill, all these other things and people that she'd never met, and mashed it to make who she was. So now she will continue in that same idea of inspiring other people."
Opening up about his grief, Remi says, "I miss her. I'm shocked that it's already a year. I can also look back and say it was a long year since then. As far as her as a person, she just always had something smart to say. And you'd want to be like, 'You shouldn't have said that.' But then you've got to laugh because it was so funny. I miss her actually as a person. And musically, she still stands up there as one of the best to ever do what she's done."