JAY-Z and his label had a whole different plan for 2000’s The Dynasty: Roc La Familia album until he got with The Neptunes to make “I Just Wanna Love You (Give It 2 Me)” at the final hour.
Hip-hop journalist and personality Lowkey stopped by The Need To Know Podcast earlier this week, where he recalled a story once told to him by longtime Hov colleague Lenny S.
Noting Lenny would kill him for sharing the story, Low revealed that as recording sessions for The Dynasty were wrapping and they were nearly on to mastering the project, the plan was for the Beanie Sigel and Memphis Bleek-assisted “Parking Lot Pimpin’” to be the lead single. In fact, the video was all set up in Los Angeles, which Jay was due to fly out for in just a few days.
However, Lenny wanted to introduce him to a then-little-known Pharrell and Chad Hugo and brought them in for a session. P ended up making the beat to what would go on to be “I Just Wanna Love You” in just “eight to 10 minutes,” and then Hov came in and put the entire song together in just another 15 minutes.
As soon as Jay’s label (which was Def Jam at the time) heard the new song, they totally switched the plan and cancelled the “Parking Lot Pimpin’” video, instead replacing it with the new one. And the rest was history.
Pharrell and JAY-Z have had an amazing relationship since then, and Usher even recently revealed that he almost formed a supergroup with the pair and Diddy.
During an interview with Shannon Sharpe on the former NFL star’s Club Shay Shay podcast, the singer revealed they went as far as discussing the business side of things, but the idea never panned out as they all got “distracted.”
“JAY-Z, Pharrell, Diddy and me were supposed to be a group,” he said. “Yeah, that’s crazy. I didn’t say no. I didn’t say yeah. I think that we just got caught up. I think we all got caught up in the moment.
“We was talking about it and having secret meetings about it. We were talking about music and how we gon’ flip it and the business of it. And somehow, man, we just got distracted and it never happened.”
He added: “That’s the one I actually wish would have happened.”
