The legendary Alchemist beat Jay-Z passed up on
Jay-Z has been a legend in the hip-hop scene for decades, producing hits like ‘Empire State of Mind‘ and ‘Drunk in Love’. His impressive work means he’s likely got access to any beat that a producer offers him. However, even prestigious producers who offer a track to Jay-Z can get turned down by the man himself.
It all started with a beat produced by famous DJ and producer The Alchemist that ended up as the track While the song went to Jadakiss with a feature from Styles in the end, the song could have turned out very differently if Hov had taken Alchemist up on his offer of the track.
The background to why the Brooklyn rapper may have rejected the track goes back a long time. Apparently, Jay-Z approached Alchemist in the club one day and told him, “stop wasting your beats.” This might have been because Alchemist was working with Nas and Mobb Deep around the time the track was produced, both of whom were not on good terms with the ’99 Problems’ maestro.
Still, Alchemist wasn’t fazed and approached Jay-Z with the beat that would turn into ‘We Gonna Make It‘. When Jay heard the track, he simply didn’t show very much interest in it. According to Alchemist, the rapper popped his head into the room where the track was playing, said, “It’s pretty dope,” and that was it. He may not have said it directly, but it’s pretty clear that Hova wasn’t all that fussed about the song.
The beat definitely lends itself to becoming a catchy song, so it’s difficult to understand why Jay-Z rejected it. Known for his use of sampling in songs, Alchemist chose to sample the 1978 track ‘My Music‘ by Samuel Jonathan Jackson within the beat. Still, the song does have more of a laidback vibe that doesn’t necessarily align with heavy rapping, which is perhaps why he turned it down.
As mentioned, the beat eventually went to Jadakiss, but it was shown to a lot of people before it got there. Aside from Jay-Z, the beat was shown to Nas, who came close to recording it, and DJ Premier. It was then sold to Ras Kass in 1999, but, according to Alchemist, the fee for the track was never paid fully (this was later revealed to be a fault of Kass’ record label and not of Kass himself).
Because of this, Alchemist once again began to showcase the beat to various artists, going on to sell it to Jadakiss in 2001. In Jadakiss’ hands, the beat became ‘We Gonna Make It‘. Jay-Z may have passed up on what became an iconic beat, but it’s doubtful he regrets it with his own stacked song catalogue.
Plus, even without the help of Jay-Z, the beat the Alchemist produced took on a life of its own throughout the years. In 2009, the producer used the iconic beat to win the 2009 RedBull BigTune Finals in Atlanta at Opera Nightclub. Competing against Just Blaze, the producer had the battle in the bag as the audience recognised the beat instantly and began to loudly cheer.