Big Sean once attempted to get Eminem to rap over a J Dilla beat, but the self-proclaimed Rap God passed on the opportunity.
In a new cover story by Essence, the Detroit rapper opened up about working with Slim Shady on his 2020 album Detroit 2.
The pair collaborated on the Motor City posse cut “Friday Night Cypher” alongside Tee Grizzley, Kash Doll, Cash Kidd, Payroll, 42 Dugg, Boldy James, Drego, Sada Baby and Royce Da 5’9″, but it wasn’t the first idea he had in mind.
Sean got his hands on an unreleased J Dilla beat for the project and sent it to Eminem, but the song never materialized — despite Em liking the instrumental.
“It reminded me of an old Eminem,” Sean said of the beat. “And when I sent it to Em, he was like, ‘Man, I like the Dilla beat, for sure. I get it.’”
This wasn’t the only Dilla production that Slim Shady passed on. D12’s Denaun Porter previously revealed that A Tribe Called Quest‘s “Get a Hold” — from their 1996 album Beats, Rhymes & Life — originally belonged to Eminem.
“He had the illest song to that beat. Em had that beat before Tribe and them had it,” the producer told Em’s longtime manager Paul Rosenberg on his Paul Pod in 2022.
“Proof gave it to him. It was like, ‘Yo, I gotta get some Dilla beats,’” he added. “I don’t know if he recorded it, but he wrote it because I remember him writing it and I remember the song being ill as hell […] The concept he had to it was crazy.”
“Proof told Jay Dee, ‘Yo, Em wants this beat.’ And it might have been another beat too. But that song… when we heard it on the Tribe album, we were like, ‘Aww man!’ But it’s A Tribe Called Quest — what you gonna say?”
Porter added: “[Dilla] told him a price and I think Em was trying to get the money up for it or something because we were broke […] Mind you, they would’ve got Slim Marshall. This was before ‘Just Don’t Give a Fuck.’”
Big Sean, on the other hand, is no stranger to spitting over J Dilla beats. In January, he joined Bryson Tiller on a remix of Slum Village’s “Get Dis Money.”
He then dropped bars over a reworked version of The Pharcyde’s “Drop” for his “Whole Time” freestyle.
Sean Don is currently readying his sixth studio album for a release this year, but only time will tell whether it’ll include some Eminem or J Dilla (or perhaps a long-awaited collaboration between the Detroit rap legends).
