Jeezy was a recent guest on the 7PM In Brooklyn podcast with Carmelo Anthony, and the cohort had a lot to discuss during their conversation. Jay-Z came up a lot due to their strong bond, but the Atlanta MC also went over some missed opportunities where Beyonce almost came into the picture.
As reported by AllHipHop, throughout the episode, Jeezy spoke on Jay-Z’s intervention tactics multiple times, such as scrapping their “Seen It All” music video because they wanted to let Bobby Shmurda‘s “Hot N***a” shine. But one of the more consequential examples of this was when Hov cut him off the Beyoncé record “Drunk In Love” and added himself.
“I dropped the ball when I wrote my verse for ‘Drunk In Love’ for Beyoncé,” The Snowman recalled. “Hov called me. He’s like, ‘I took you off the song. By the way, I’m on there.’ I was like, ‘I figured that.’ It’s on someone’s drive. Tell Bey we need to put that out. It’s some vintage.”
Then, Jeezy’s Jay-Z story continued by recalling the only time he was in the studio with him, which was also with Queen Bey when he was writing the “Drunk In Love” verse. “He came in the room and she’s like, ‘You got something for this?’ You know, I’m going in. It sounded crazy. This is her song, but I’m just trying to go hard. He probably like, ‘Oh nah. We no putting that out.'”
It seems like the reason why this verse never came out was because it didn’t fit the vibe of the song, or because Jeezy was just too excited in his recording. Either way, it’s a very curious recollection that shows collaborating with other artists is a question of the right place and the right time.
For those somehow unaware, Jay-Z and Jeezy have plenty of collaborations together. There’s the aforementioned “Seen It All” from 2014, but also the “Go Crazy” remix, “I Do” with André 3000, The Blueprint 3‘s “Real As It Gets,” and more. While that Beyoncé collaboration never manifested, perhaps it’s never too late for someone to find that drive.