Every week as part of our Saturday night hip hop show The Breaks, hosts Confucius and Fresh present facts about the culture of hip hop and R&B that you might not have known.
Check out the full episode and the podcast.
Disclaimer: None of these facts have been fact-checked so might in fact be false. Read at your own risk.
#1 – Drake passed on the beat before A$AP Rocky turned it into a hit on”1Train.”
- As fun as it is to think about Drake recording a posse cut with Danny Brown, A$AP Rocky recorded a classic with that beat.
# 2 -The success of Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me” and K-Ci and JoJo’s “All My Life” were responsible for funding the marketing budget for the Root’s Things Fall Apart and Common’s Like Water for Chocolate.
- The success of two enduring classics that launched the careers of the Roots, Common, and by association, the entire Soulquarians collective is partly owed to Shaggy and K-Ci and JoJo!?
- Nobody can ever disrespect Shaggy or K-Ci and JoJo again.
# 3 Madlib was not featured on Jay-Z’s The Black Album because he missed the deadline to send in his beat.
- Credits on a triple platinum record would have been nice, but at least Madlib still recorded two classics in 2003. Madvillainy and Champion Sound are triple platinum records in our hearts. Sorry about that bank account.
# 4 – Lil Bow Wow debut was on the remix for Destiny’s Child’s “Jumpin’ Jumpin'”
- This is before Big Mama’s House!
# 5 – Scarface made Nas change his verse on “In Between Us” because he wouldn’t stop dissing Jay-Z.
- Maybe turning other people’s records into a Jay-Z diss track is taking it too far.
# 6 – The mother of Nas’ oldest child was with him when Funkmaster Flex first aired “Ether” on Hot 97.
- For context, Jay-Z had previously released a diss track where he claims he was sleeping with Nas’s baby momma. “Ether” was Nas’ rebuttal.
