Sometimes it’s by pure chance that we get to hear the songs that artist’s put out into the world. There are so many instances of collaborations that never saw the light of day, songs that stayed in the vault for years on end, and beats that made their way to multiple artists essentially creating a bidding war. In 2012 that was almost the case for producer Hit-Boy as he had a beat that made it’s way to multiple big names that recorded full songs over it.
In 2013, that beat and collaboration came out to the public as Justin Bieber and Drake’s “Right Here.” Hit-Boy recently revealed that the beat was supposed to be for Big Sean and J. Cole initially, as they had a song called “24K of Gold” recorded over it. Big Sean, however, realizing the opportunity Hit-Boy had as Bieber and Drake were (and, obviously, still are) two of the biggest artists in the world, essentially told Hit-Boy he couldn’t pass that up as it would be a major look for him. Good guy Big Sean with the assist. It all worked out in the end as well as their good friend and producer Key Wane flipped a new beat for Sean & Cole to use for their collaboration. It’s really cool to see how things shake out behind the scenes and to think of what could and couldn’t have been.