Big Sean almost scrapped one of his biggest hits, “I Don’t F–k With You,” from his 2015 Dark Sky Paradise album, thinking it was a mistake, “dumb”, and wouldn’t have commercial appeal. He recently reflected on that moment during an episode of the St. Brown Podcast on March 5th, where he shared a story about playing the song for Beyoncé and Jay-Z at their home before the album’s release.
According to Sean, Beyoncé found the track “a little disrespectful” and suggested adding Nicki Minaj to balance it out with a female perspective. Meanwhile, Jay-Z had a completely different reaction, encouraging him to release the song. “I went to their house and was playing them songs. Beyoncé was like, ‘It’s a little disrespectful. Maybe you should [get] Nicki Minaj on it for a female’s voice.’ Jay-Z was like, ‘Nah, it’s hard, though.’ He was like, ‘People gonna get it that you just having fun.’”
Despite his doubts and thinking it was a mistake, Jay-Z kept pushing Sean to drop the song. “Then I remember I was getting texts from Hov. He sent me a text one time that was like, ‘Every day you not putting that song out, you losing.’ I almost didn’t put it on the album. I thought it was a little dumb.”
Ultimately, Sean decided to keep the track, featuring E-40 instead. “I Don’t F–k With You” became a massive success, reaching No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and nearly achieving diamond status at 9x-platinum.
The day before Dark Sky Paradise dropped, Sean paid homage to Beyoncé by freestyling over her 2003 hit “Me, Myself and I.”
Leave a Reply