Stories of Rappers Passing On What Became Hit Records....

[DANJ!]

"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

Right, the only reason it sounds "tropical" is because we're hearing it with the "boricua, morena" part and the fact it's a Latin rapper on it so that's the sound burned in our mind... the beat by itself coulda worked for Jay, coulda worked for Mase, even a female like Kim or Foxy...

 

[vdfebduderocks]

Some random ones below:

1) Not necessarily a passed on situation, but before Mystikal turned out to be a sex offender, his label had Lil Jon produce some beats for him. One of those he passed on was Freek-a-Leek. Ironically, Petey Pablo took Freek-a-Leek away from Usher, which was later reworked to Yeah.

2) Shawnna passed on Gold Digger

3) Clipse stole Wamp Wamp from Foxy Brown

4) Bring em Out was originally meant for Beanie Sigel

5) Busta Rhymes took Touch It away from Eve

6) Yung Joc passed on Blue Magic

 

[Nostalgic]

6) Yung Joc passed on Blue Magic

I wouldn't say Joc passed on Blue Magic.

It was more so Joc was having writers block in the studio and Jay just came through during that day of recording and strong armed that beat from Joc.

 

[kej718]

Pusha T and “nikkas in Paris”
Busta Rhymes “Halftime”
Jay-Z “Whoa!”

 

[Sauce Dab]

The beat for Future “codeine crazy“ was originally meant for Nicki Minaj

 

[Jerz-2]

Some random ones below:

1) Not necessarily a passed on situation, but before Mystikal turned out to be a sex offender, his label had Lil Jon produce some beats for him. One of those he passed on was Freek-a-Leek. Ironically, Petey Pablo took Freek-a-Leek away from Usher, which was later reworked to Yeah.

2) Shawnna passed on Gold Digger

3) Clipse stole Wamp Wamp from Foxy Brown

4) Bring em Out was originally meant for Beanie Sigel

5) Busta Rhymes took Touch It away from Eve

6) Yung Joc passed on Blue Magic

Eve would have bodied that.

Beanie on the "Bring 'Em Out" beat would have been interesting.

Somebody needs to make a blend tape of all these

 

[7th Letter Specialist]

I passed on This Is How We Do

 

[NoHalfWay]

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.’"

Stillmatic/God’s Son era Nas on the Many Men beat

The amount of shyt talkin him n Fif woulda spit

 

[I love Latina women]

Think "Heard 'Em Say" was originally meant for Common.

Nas had the "We Gon' Make It" instrumental but didn't do anything with it and it eventually got to Kiss and Styles.

Ye’s “everything I am” was for common too

 

[UnQuantized]

2002 Nas on "Many Men" Beat reminds a bit of 'Mastermind'

 

[Ziggiy]

Lupe passed on "Nothin' On You"

B.O.B. and Bruno Mars turned it into a hit

The label tried to force Nothin On You on Lupe. Even if you listen to his version on YouTube you can tell he sounds lifeless, almost disgusted with the entire concept.

 

[Ziggiy]

Drake passed on Unforgettable and French got ahold of it somehow.

Drake got a gang of hits to last a lifetime but I know he had to be TIGHT his writers couldn’t cook up something to Unforgettable. Thats a hit of hits

 

[Silkk]

D12 not fukking with the In the club beat is wild.

Anybody passing on that and the whoa beat need they ass beat

 

[raoulduke187]

the D12 version was actually recorded

 

[Ziggiy]

Nas took Hate Me Now from Foxy because she didn’t know what to do with it

Luda took Runaway Love from Nas because he promised the producer it would be a single

Jay jacked the beat for C’Mon Baby from Saigon but later gave it back to him and let him keep the verse

Common passed on Everything I Am and The Glory

Jesus Walks was originally Rhymefest song. He actually performed it publicly but he gave the song to Kanye because Kanye was about to blow up and he was being a team player.

Busta Rhymes passed on Halftime because he didn’t know what to do with it.

J.Cole had the beat to Nas’s Stay first and even recorded a full song to it. A sped up version of that beat co-peoduced by Kanye was also Cyhi The Prince’s Whoopty Doo.