Just Blaze says that a random call from Beyonce led to Jay Z’s appearance on his “Higher” single.
“She wanted me to come see her in the studio,” Just Blaze says during an interview with Life + Times. “So I go to the studio and Jay walks in, and I’m like, ‘Oh yo, let me play you something that I’ve been working on.’ I play it for him, and Bey is like, ‘That’s amazing. What do you call this kind of music?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I just did it.’ Actually, this is before anybody even knew who Baauer was. I brought him with me to the studio. So then we’re walking out, and I run back in and I’m like, ‘Yo, Jay, do me a favor. Just say this, “Just Blaze, rocking with the best. Baauer, bitches. Bow down,”‘ whatever. He says it into my iPhone. I take that, chopped it up, put it in the record, add in the samples from ‘U Don’t Know,’ and a week later, we had a hit.”
Just Blaze’s introduction to Jay Z through his Roc-A-Fella Records almost didn’t happen, though. While working at his job, Just Blaze hung up on Gee, then a Roc-A-Fella Records A&R.
“I thought it was a prank call,” Just Blaze says. “Two minutes later, the phone rings again, I picked it up and they’re like, ‘Hey, I was talking to Just and the phone got disconnected.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, this is him. What do you want?’ I’m thinking it’s a prank call, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, like I was telling you, we’re trying to start a production team. We’d love to talk to you. We have this new kid named Kanye West. We have this other guy named Rockwilder. We’d like to make you one of the producers.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh? This wasn’t a joke? Okay!’ So I ran to my boss and I’m like, ‘Yo, I gotta go to this meeting.’ He’s like, ‘But you just came back from lunch.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, Jay Z’s label just called me. I gotta go to this meeting.’ So I run down to the meeting and it kind of all went from there. It was a great experience, obviously a lot of great music was made, great relationships were made.”
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