Check the Credits: Blac Elvis Tells the Stories Behind Writing Hits for Beyonce, T.I., Rick Ross & More

“Ego” – Beyonce

“Me and my partner Harold Lilly – we’ve been working together for quite some time now – we were just in the studio and how we like to do it is just me, him and a piano. One night we were just playing around with some stuff and some cords and that little riff. [hums melody] He heard it and started singing. I was like ‘Oh my god!’ We had the piano and the record done probably in about the next hour after that. A lot of people don’t know this, but we actually sent the record to Jamie Foxx. We sent it to Jamie and he loved the record. Within the next couple of days we were in LA cutting the record on Jaime, but at the same time we sent the record to our publisher too, so in the midst of us cutting the record in Jamie – which it turned out great – our publisher was playing the record for Beyonce. Jamie was kind of dragging his feet a little bit. He said he liked the record, but he thought it was a little too arrogant for him. Then we get the phone call from our publisher like “Beyonce loves this record. Jamie is going to have to be mad at her, but she’s doing it.” When we got that phone call we were like ‘It’s ok.’ [laughs] Jamie is a good friend of ours and we had worked together before, but to get that call from Beyonce’s camp – that’s a whole other beast. She cut the record and it was history from there. When I first heard Kanye on it I thought it was genius. To get him and Beyonce on a record was monumental. We won a Grammy for that record. That was incredible. It was like one of the biggest experiences I’ve experienced yet in this game.”