N.O.R.E. has said that he regrets passing on Ludacris‘ “Southern Hospitality” beat.
In an interview on Drink Champs, N.O.R.E. and Luda discussed the track, and while the “Superthug” rapper said he’s been “kicking himself” ever since, he admitted the beat would not have worked for him.
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“‘Throw them bows,’ I heard that beat. I passed on it,” he said. “For 21 years, I’ve been kicking myself in the ass! It wasn’t for me. I wouldn’t have done ‘Southern Hospitality.'”
The Neptunes-produced single ended up being a huge hit for Ludacris, peaking at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helping his second album Back for the First Time crack the top five on the Billboard 200.
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N.O.R.E. also reflected on some career advice that Pharrell once gave him and saluted Luda for “embracing his character.”
“One of my biggest gripes with Pharrell was, when I first got in the studio with him, he was like, ‘You have to embrace your character [like] how Busta embraces his character,'” he remembered. “And I didn’t understand ’cause I’m like, ‘I’m not a character; I’m just being who I am.’
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“And Pharrell’s like, ‘It doesn’t matter who you think you are; it’s how the people perceive you.’ I never embraced my character. And from the moment I seen you from, ‘W-w-w-what’s your fantasy?’ I was like, ‘This guy’s embracing his character. He’s doing exactly what Pharrell [told me].’
Watch his comments at the 32:53 mark below.
N.O.R.E. would not be the first rapper to turn down a beat that went on to become a huge hit.
According to Roc-A-Fella’s former Head of A&R Kyambo “Hip Hop” Joshua, JAY-Z passed on Big Pun’s “Still Not a Player” back in the late ’90s.
“There’s a lot that didn’t make it, that I tried to force and then other people used them,” Hip Hop told the R.O.A.D. Podcast. “‘Still Not a Player, I had that. I had [Black Rob‘s] ‘Woah,’ I think [Memphis] Bleek passed on that. We had [Mr. Cheeks’] ‘Lights, Camera, Action,’ [JAY] said it was too slow. I was like, ‘What you mean it’s too slow?’”
Released in 1998, “Still Not a Player” featuring Joe was technically a remix of Big Pun’s 1997 single “I’m Not a Player,” but ended up surpassing the success of the original in many ways and became Pun’s highest ranked song on the Billboard Hot 100.
No I.D. also previously claimed that J. Colepassed on a number of his beats that were later used by artists such as Nas, Rick Ross and Big Sean.
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Speaking on Spotify’s RapCaviar Podcast, the producer said: “I used to have a running joke with J. Cole like, ‘Yo, I gotta do a session with you so I can do a beat that you’re not going to use, that I can get off.'”
“It was like a week or two we was working in the beginning,” he continued. “For him, I did the ‘Control’ beat, Nas ‘Stay,’ ‘Tears of Joy,’ ‘My Last’ and something else. And it was just like, ‘Nah, that ain’t it.’”
