Pimp C Refused To Do ‘Big Pimpin’ (Video) (2020)

According to former A&R executive Jeff Sledge, Pimp C said, “Na, I ain’t doing that. Man, f*ck Jay-Z.” Firm in his convictions, he delayed putting his verse on the record after Bun B and Jay-Z already laid theirs down. The Timbaland-produced track became a memorable anthem, but it almost didn’t happen with UGK because Pimp C wasn’t on board. “Big Pimpin’” wound up on four different Billboard charts.


For Jay-Z, it was one of the songs that helped his fourth album go triple platinum but Pimp C did not want to work with Jay-Z. Sledge said he eventually rapped over it but only sent it 12 bars. Jay-Z loved the finished product but decided to cap the record off himself with a few more lyrics. And then it came time to shoot the video and Pimp C refused to do it. While Bun B went on the trip, Pimp C’s footage was shot in Miami instead.

*youtube.com
*cheatsheet.com

Timbaland Talks ‘Big Pimpin’

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It’s kinda crazy how some of these songs we do get put together. It takes being creative, thinking outside the box and taking a shot at something different. This is just one of many examples where we did so.

A post shared by Timbo the King (@timbaland) on Mar 14, 2019 at 2:44pm PDT

Rob Knox Talks Being Influcenced By Timbaland

Rob Knox has been interviewed by Billboard.com where he talked about working with Justin Timberlake on ‘Man Of The Woods’ and being influenced by Timbaland.

With an interest in both rock and hip-hop, Knox first learned violin (which his aunt gave him as a present from Egypt) and then guitar (which his mom bought for 40 bucks). But it was the Timbaland-produced “Big Pimpin’” that served as the catalyst for the rest of his life. “When I heard it I was like, ‘Am I crazy or is this that song ‘Khosara Khosara’”? Popularized by the Egyptian superstar Abdel Halim Hafez, his “Khosara Khosara” is the flute riff sampled throughout the smash Jay-Z hit. (The choice of sample later landed both Jay-Z and Timbaland in court.) “At the time, I didn’t even know what a producer was. I thought these songs just magically appeared on a CD. But when I realized that Timbaland took this '60s-era Egyptian song and somehow made it into this crazy hip-hop record, I started doing research and realized he was doing that a lot, from Petey Pablo to Bubba Sparxxx and Aaliyah. That’s really what sparked my interest in production.”

Jay-Z - Big Pimpin' feat. UGK (Official Video) (1999)

Abdel Halim Hafez - Khosara (1960)

*billboard.com