Rihanna‘s “Diamonds” is a 2012 powerfully phenomel track that nearly went to Eminem and Lana Del Rey. Producer Benny Blanco unleashed these pop history deets in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music.
Produced by Stargate and Sia/ The tune was originally thought for Kanye West or Lana Del Rey. Benny says: “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,’” Benny continued about submitting the beats to Eminem‘s camp for consideration. Turns out Marshall even recorded the jam.
“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.’”
“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,’” he admitted when he finally decided to go with Rihanna.
Kanye ended up on the remix to “Diamonds,” anyway.
“And then, this is how life works, full circle. Kanye West does a remix to the song,” Benny intriguingly concluded.
Now this enthralling story we’ll filed under our own title, “Pop-Jeopardy”. A gem of an anecdote with Queen RiRi and the and only Slim Shady!
