Rihanna's "Diamonds" was almost released by Eminem.
Producer Benny Blanco made the revelation in a recent interview, where he reflected on the 2012 smash, which he wrote and produced alongside Stargate and Sia. Initially, he wanted the track to go to Kanye West or Lana Del Rey, but his collaborators had different ideas. "Stargate's like, 'Yo, we're giving this song to Rihanna. It's going to go,'" he recalled. "And I was like, 'I don't know, man. Should we keep the beat for Kanye? I don't know about it.'"
Despite the floating names, Blanco ended up submitting the song to Slim Shady's manager who had the rapper cut the record. "I remember, at the same time, I had given a beat CD like a month earlier to Paul Rosenberg to give to Eminem," he continued. "And apparently, Eminem had done a song to it, too. And I didn’t even know. And I’m sitting there… Dude, so when it happened, Paul was like, 'Man, Em had that beat on hold.’'I was like, 'What? I didn’t even know.'"
Blanco said that the song ended up making its way to Rih's camp and he has no regrets over the final product. "I'm sitting there, and then I finally am like, 'You know what, Stargate?' I let go. I said, 'You guys know better. Let’s do it,'" he recalled. "She cut the song. First of all, the second she cut the song, they were completely right. I was like, ‘This is the best song I’ve ever done.'"
Fate had a funny way of sneaking into the picture when Yeezy ended up working on a remix to the hit, which was released a few months afterward. "And then, this is how life works, full circle. Kanye West does a remix to the song," he added.
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