Now Playing
ABC/Ida Mae Astute
Jamie Foxx, who released his fifth album Tuesday, says his music career started back in 2003, thanks to none other than Kanye West.
In a preview clip of Wednesday’s The Steve Harvey Show, the Oscar-winner explains that the then-unknown producer/rapper showed up at his house, wearing a backpack. That night, Foxx was hosting a party at his house called “New Music Hour,” where people would perform and he was impressed by West.
“And then he said, ‘I gotta song for you.’ So I sung it but I’m thinking in my mind like, ‘Ehh, this song ain’t gon’ be nothing.’ I leave for six weeks. I had to go do a bad movie and when I come back…[producer Jon] Brion is like, ‘Remember that song you said wasn’t nothing? It’s number one in the country,'” he explains.
That song was the 2004 hit “Slow Jamz,” by rapper Twista. It was also the lead single from West’s debut album, The College Dropout.
“And that’s how I got into the music game to sort of complete the cycle,” Foxx said.
Foxx and West went on to do a number of collaborations, including “Gold Digger” and “Digital Girl.”
Foxx’s Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses is out now.
