Foxx: I doubted West on Slow Jamz
Foxx says he was convinced Slow Jamz, his 2003 Kanye West and Twista collaboration, would bomb. Foxx was attempting to relaunch his singing career by throwing house parties in LA when he first met Kanye, then an up-and-coming rapper who had just survived a car crash.
I would throw parties just so I could get into music. I had a studio in my house, and when I had music people over, I said, ‘Leave some music in my studio,’ ’cause I was trying to get on. In walks this kid with a backpack on, jaw’s a little busted; it’s Kanye West. I asked Kanye to perform, so he did this freestyle and I said, ‘Oh my God, you’re about to be bigger than life!’.
However, Foxx wasn’t so sure about Kanye’s ability to make hits after West told him to sing the song with less of an R&B feel.
He said, ‘Don’t do that. Things have changed, just sing it simple. So when I sing the song, I’m thinking in my mind, ‘This song ain’t gonna work’. I do the song begrudgingly, leave and do a bad movie for six weeks, come back, [and] when I get back, my homie said, ‘You know that song you said was bad? It’s number one in the country!’