You never really know just how much unreleased music we’re missing out on. There’s collaborations we might not have even heard of before. The fans in all of us want to devour all of this but sometimes, a song doesn’t make sense for a particular album. Or maybe the quality isn’t up to par for them. How does that make the feature artist feel? One example of this would be Redman, who apparently recorded something for a song with The Roots. However, it never saw the light of day. Now, he’s candidly opening up about missing that opportunity.
Recently, the New Jersey rapper spoke with Black Thought for Rolling Stone. There, he talks about sending a record to the Roots but never getting any word back. Initially, he thought that his verse might’ve been too dirty for the group. “I said damn, you know what, I was cursing a little bit too much,” Redman recalls. I might have said ‘b***h’ or something derogatory that they probably didn’t like, and yo, I was actually hurt from that, bro.”
However, Black Thought clears up exactly why he might not have heard anything.
Black Thought Reveals What Happened to The Redman Verse for The Roots
He tells the Muddy Waters MC that The Roots’ late manager Rich Nichols handled a lot of the song picking process. Moreover, he was especially picky with which records made their albums. Consequently, Redman might have been left on the cutting room floor, even if his verse was great. He just had a specific instinct to pick certain songs.
“You know what happened, Rich, rest in peace, who was very much the brains of The Roots operation, ran such a tight ship,” Black Thought explains. “It was hard for me to place verses on The Roots’ albums. He would shoot down every submission, and there was something about that verse, something that Rich didn’t like about it. I can’t remember what it was.”
All Black Thought remembers was enjoying what Redman submitted. All he knows is that Rich didn’t like it. Once The Roots co-founder digs up the old verse, he says he can tell him exactly why it didn’t make it.
The post Redman Opens up About Unreleased Verse He Gave to the Roots ‘I Was Actually Hurt From That, Bro’ appeared first on VICE.
