get these nets
Veteran
Yeah, people forget that Mad Skills is from the ATCQ family tree. He probably heard Dilla beats the moment that Qtip did.
Pharcyde made perfect use of it. Skills had BARS for days, but wouldn't have made a hit with that beat.
Stories of Rappers Passing On What Became Hit Records....
- Thread starter Jerz-2
- Start date
Yeah, people forget that Mad Skills is from the ATCQ family tree. He probably heard Dilla beats the moment that Qtip did.
Pharcyde made perfect use of it. Skills had BARS for days, but wouldn't have made a hit with that beat.
Reality Check
Keepin' it 100
Few others that haven't been mentioned:
- "How Do U Want It?" Beat was pitched to Crooked I very early in his career with Virgin/Noo Trybe and he passed on it
- Fat Joe passed on "Candy Shop" before it was given to 50 Cent
- Supposedly the beat for "Doin' It" was meant for Biggie but LL got the money to them first
- D12 passed on the beat for "In Da Club"
- 2nd II None passed on a beat that turned into 2pac "Heartz of Men"
- Rumor is the beat Suga Free used for "Fly Fo Life" was the beat to an unreleased 2pac song that's in Quik's vault
- Everyone knows "Can't C Me" by 2pac was originally a Dogg Pound track, but there are supposedly a Snoop version and a Dre/Cube version as well
Yeap, and also, who's even to say that those beats would have become what we know them as now. Let's say Skillz did take the Runnin' beat, but it wasn't Runnin'... the hook we know wasn't the hook, the guys at Big Beat didn't make it a single, it was just another song on the album- so then, nobody's shakin' their heads about it today because the beat goes mostly unheard and not even Skillz knows what it could have been. A lotta people may not have even ever heard the beat or the song he chose to do on it. Sometimes shyt just falls into place the way it's supposed to... there's probably a gang of beats out there that went to the wrong person or were used for album cuts that could have been a hit for someone else.
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I hate Common passed on "Everything I Am". I love Kanye's song, but it would have been a perfect single for Common.
Heart Of The City was meant for DMX.
Drake strong armed the 0 to 100 beat from Puffy.
Nas and JayZ passed on the "You Don't Know My Name" beat Alicia Keys turned that Into a hit
Nas passed on "Fear" that went to Drake
H To The Izzo was Cam'Ron's beat first.
Jay passed on the Pump It Up beat Joe Budden turned that into a hit.
Drake strong armed the 0 to 100 beat from Puffy.
Nas and JayZ passed on the "You Don't Know My Name" beat Alicia Keys turned that Into a hit
Nas passed on "Fear" that went to Drake
H To The Izzo was Cam'Ron's beat first.
Jay passed on the Pump It Up beat Joe Budden turned that into a hit.
Many Men was originally a Nas joint
During an interview with Mass Appeal reflecting on The Lost Tapes, former A&R Lenny "Linen" Nicholson shared the fun fact about the Darrell "Digga" Branch instrumental.
“50 [Cent’s] song ‘Many Men’ was a Nas track first—he actually vocalled it," says Nicholson. "He was developing another artist named Nashawn… he had to massively impress Nas. If Nas started something, he would add his vocal to it and see if Nas would be impressed enough to keep it. [Nas] didn’t finish that track… that was a track that he just fell out of love with."
Nicholson, with permission from Nas, then gave the beat to Fif, a move that was pretty organic considering both artists were on Columbia Records' roster at the time.
"At that time 50 was looking for something just to stay busy and to keep writing," Nicholson adds. "I gave it to 50, and it turned into ‘Many Men.’"
During an interview with Mass Appeal reflecting on The Lost Tapes, former A&R Lenny "Linen" Nicholson shared the fun fact about the Darrell "Digga" Branch instrumental.
“50 [Cent’s] song ‘Many Men’ was a Nas track first—he actually vocalled it," says Nicholson. "He was developing another artist named Nashawn… he had to massively impress Nas. If Nas started something, he would add his vocal to it and see if Nas would be impressed enough to keep it. [Nas] didn’t finish that track… that was a track that he just fell out of love with."
Nicholson, with permission from Nas, then gave the beat to Fif, a move that was pretty organic considering both artists were on Columbia Records' roster at the time.
"At that time 50 was looking for something just to stay busy and to keep writing," Nicholson adds. "I gave it to 50, and it turned into ‘Many Men.’"
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Atsym Sknyfs
Superstar
let's not forget the Beats that Timbo played for Jay in Fade to Black before he picked Dirt on your shoulder
Mortal1
Superstar
yeah he said the beat was weak
Nas passed on We Gon Make It
Ghostface passed on Girls, Girls, Girls
MJ didn’t want Rock Your Body, he wanted Superthug
Ghostface would have killed Girls, Girls, Girls
Never heard of this.
Kanye has said a gang of his early beats were meant for Ghost, but I don't recall Ghost actually getting a chance to hear them. Jay took them as soon as he heard them.
Not saying this info is wrong but I've never seen it mentioned before.
Fred.
"Girls, Girls, Girls" is right up Ghostface's alley too...
Also I don't see how "Still Not a Player" is too "tropical sounding" for Jay, that's a Brenda Russell sample and even then, a lot of tracks had that salsa ass vibe to them in the late 90s
Also I don't see how "Still Not a Player" is too "tropical sounding" for Jay, that's a Brenda Russell sample and even then, a lot of tracks had that salsa ass vibe to them in the late 90s
Easy Mo Bee said he made the "Warning" beat strictly for Kane in '94 and Kane said "next".
And yeah it was a fumble but TBH... this is '94 Kane we're talkin' about. Even if he had taken it, it'd ended up sittin' on an album most of us ain't given one listen to This ain't prime Kane, this is him on his last leg making terrible singles nshyt. So ay, good for the beat and Mo Bee! 
There's prolly a gang of incredible beats that somebody coulda picked and made a classic with that are instead on half-ass albums.
And yeah it was a fumble but TBH... this is '94 Kane we're talkin' about. Even if he had taken it, it'd ended up sittin' on an album most of us ain't given one listen to
This ain't prime Kane, this is him on his last leg making terrible singles nshyt. So ay, good for the beat and Mo Bee! There's prolly a gang of incredible beats that somebody coulda picked and made a classic with that are instead on half-ass albums.