Rihanna‘s smash-hit ‘Diamonds’ was almost not hers.
The song’s producer, Benny Blanco, recently reflected on the origins of the 2012 chart-topper – which he wrote and produced with Sia and Stargate – in a new interview with Apple Music‘s Zane Lowe. During the interview, he revealed the surprising artist who originally recorded the song.
His words below…
“Stargate’s like, ‘Yo, we’re giving this song to Rihanna. It’s going to go.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know, man. Should we keep the beat for Kanye? I don’t know about it.'”
Around this same time, the song was submitted to Eminem’s manager for consideration and Eminem ended up cutting 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. 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.'”
The song then eventually found its way to Em’s frequent collaborator Rihanna, a decision Blanco does not regret.
“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.’ 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 still worked in Kanye’s favor as he ended up on the remix of the song.
Watch Blanco’s full interview below…