The first two songs that I wrote, produced and demoed with my voice on it was that song and then Akon's "Sorry, Blame It On Me." The first two demos I ever wrote and demoed, the two biggest artists at the time took them.

I mean, just like every other prominent songwriter or producer, you have the shot. You send in records and if they make it, they make it. If they get heard, they get heard. I'm not sure if you know how that circle of songwriting and producing works, but every time a big artist is working, everybody and their mother is in the studio writing records to try to get on it.

She [Beyonce] is just an energetic performer and she loves drums. She loves edge.

At that point, when songs got leaked, it was cool though too because then you started getting recognition beforehand.

Beyoncé can handle any record you put in front of her. Any record that pushes her in that direction, it would have been good to be on the project.

I'd stopped doing music all of a sudden, and because of Chill and Jay and B, I got half of my album on a solo project. Then I get a call a week later and Jay is like, "Yo, Janet [Jackson] likes one of the records. We'll take five but are you cool with giving Janet one?" I was like, dude, we can do whatever you want to do.

I made the record, and I sent it over to Jay Brown, who was working on Rihanna's album. He was like, "Send me that record for Rihanna."