Sean Paul denied remarks by Jay-Z about the mogul not approving Beyoncé’s collaboration with the rapper on their 2003 hit “Baby Boy” on Feb. 18 during an interview with Hot New Hip Hop while promoting new music. The 48-year-old made headlines a month ago after his comments on a Jamaican radio station went viral.
The Kingston native said the station took his statement regarding the situation out of context. “It was a radio show here in Jamaica and I get this regularly. When I go to Texas, also, radio shows there, I don’t know what it is, people are like, ‘So tell me…’ and it gets to that part in that interview where they’re like, ‘What happened with you and Beyoncé?’ Nothing really happened. The hit song was dope.”
He added,”You know, some of them made up their own mind. That’s the whatever. Sometimes with interviews, you can say, ‘I’d rather not speak about it,’ but then, people would think that something was going on. So, I was trying to defend it like, ‘Hey nah, but weird things did happen; that’s probably why there were rumors,’ but people leave out ‘that’s probably why there were rumors’ part.”
The “Temperature” emcee also mentioned what went on during the video shoot with Beyoncé, in which the duo shot their scenes separately. “There were weird things that happened on stage with our performance, with the [music] video. I know a headline said that ‘oh, Jay-Z didn’t want me there.’ It had nothing to do with him as far as I’m concerned. [Beyoncé’s] her own artist that was managed by her own manager. They were going out at the time. They weren’t married yet. I don’t think he would have influenced whatever her vision was. She’s a very determined person. She’s very precise with her thoughts and her movements, and she works very hard. It was probably her vision.”
Paul concluded the interview by explaining why both he and Beyoncé only performed the song once together, which was during the 2003 “MTV Europe Music Awards.” The rapper blamed it on technical issues.
“So, what I did speak about in that interview was that there were some weird things that happened and that’s probably why people had rumors about it because a couple of times while on stage, we tried to perform [‘Baby Boy’] properly. There were problems with the Pro Tools, which doesn’t usually happen. There was problems with my mic in one performance in Germany. That’s probably why people started talking about [it].”
Last month during an interview with Jamaican radio station “Too Live Crew, Action & the Burgerman,” Paul revealed although Jay-Z accepted the collaboration between the two artists, the “99 Problems” rapper didn’t want him to get too close to Beyoncé as they promoted the single.
When the radio host suggested if Paul’s good looks could have contributed to Jay-Z’s stance, the “We Be Burnin'” lyricist agreed by saying, “Yes, to me that was something that was apparent at the time. Wi know that artistry is artistry suh a nuh everytime dem ting deh gwan.”
