Silkk The Shocker has revealed that JAY-Z turned down a six-figure fee for his verse on their 1999 collaboration “You Know What We Bout.”
The former No Limit soldier reflected on his “dope” relationship with Hov during an interview with The Art of Dialogue, saying the Roc-A-Fella rhymer politely declined $100,000 for appearing on the Made Man album cut.
“Our relationship was dope because when I did the song with him, I thought I had a budget for him,” Silkk recalled. “I was like, ‘Yo, I got a hundred racks’ — that’s a lot of money back in the day too! I’m sure he could’ve used the extra $100,000; who ain’t gonna use that?
“When I hit him up, I’m like, ‘Yo, the song is dope, you killed it. Where I should I send that bread to?’ Jay was like, ‘Nah, it’s good, man. Just keep it and we’ll figure out something later on down the line.’”
Silkk The Shocker said it made him realize that JAY-Z is driven by his “vision” rather than money, and because of that it’s “no fluke” that the Brooklyn-bred billionaire has achieved such enormous success in his career.
“He won’t do it for anybody, though; he won’t even do music for anybody. What I came to learn was that it’s bigger than [money] for him,” he added. “To me, that’s consistent with [where he is] today — if you look at him, it’s not a fluke that he’s successful.”
He continued: “I don’t care how rich you are, you gonna be like, ‘Man, send my bread.’ But he was just dead cool. He ain’t even second-guess it like, ‘Yeah, send me half of it.’ The good part about it: down the line, I kinda did something for him and I just thought it was solid.”
Also featuring Silkk The Shocker’s older brother and No Limit impresario Master P, “You Know What We Bout” was one of several examples of JAY-Z embracing Southern rap early in his career and helped Silkk’s Made Man LP top the Billboard 200.
The New Orleans native previously shed light on the song during his appearance on Drink Champs in 2021, where he revealed Hov submitted his verse at the last minute and DMX was also supposed to appear on the track.
“Nobody really knew Jay at the time, but I wanted Jay [on the song],” he said. “By the time I actually got to it, Jay was kinda popping a little more. And rest in peace to DMX too — I think it was supposed to be me, DMX and Jay on the record.
“My album was supposed to be turned in on the Thursday at 11 a.m. [JAY-Z and DMX’s Hard Knock Life] tour was over Wednesday night, and I said, ‘Jay, I need this thing by Thursday, we’re mastering it.’”
Silkk continued: “He was like, ‘I gotchu.’ It’s funny because he left the show, I think, immediately, went back, knocked it out at like three or four in the morning and sent it. He could’ve just been like, ‘I’m tired, I just rocked a show.’
“Salute to DMX too, he really wanted to do it, but he probably was just like, ‘I’ma get it in the morning, I ain’t got time to do it.’ So I just had to go with Jay.”
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