Ne-Yo has plenty of notable collaborations with the biggest names in Hip-Hop but there's one hit in particular that was originally meant for JAY-Z.
The Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter stopped by The Cruz Show on Real 92.3 last Thursday, March 6, to talk about everything from his polyamorous lifestyle to new music he's been working on. During the conversation, J Cruz asked Ne-Yo if he'd ever written a batch of songs for one artist. He said yes and explained how he came up with the idea for "Made Me Better" in his session with Hov and Beyoncé.
"I wrote that originally for JAY-Z," Ne-Yo explained. "Shout to Timbaland who did the track. That was my first time going to the studio with JAY-Z and also my first time seeing JAY-Z and Beyonce our of the public eye. So I'm sitting there with the track and I'm supposed to be writing the hook for Jay. Jay and B are over in the corner just kind of in their own world all hugged up like no one else exists.
"So I'm like 'Aight Jay is clearly a movement by himself but them together is like a force... hmm 'I'm a movement by myself, but I'm a force when we're together. Baby I'm good all by myself, but you, you make me better... ok here we go!' I wrote it. I played it for him. He loved it that night but then like two days later he hit me and said 'This kind of feels morel ike a R&B record so I want you to have it' so he gave it to me. I'm like 'Aight cool' so I wrote verses to it and the whole nine and it sat in the archives for a few months."
Ne-Yo said he didn't use the song until he played the record for Fabolous, who ended up taking the song and making it into what it is today. "Make Me Better" was the third single from Fab's 2007 LP From Nothin' to Somethin'. The song topped the Billboard charts that year and sparked a couple of remixes.
Watch the entire interview with Ne-Yo below.