Making music is a communal thing. Most artists double as A&Rs who take on the task of recruiting the right people to animate their vision when it comes to a song or album. Sometimes though, the artists that are featured only live in the liner notes of a song or album and not on the actual tracklisting. These hidden, uncredited additions on hip-hop songs often emerge as secret ingredients in the formula.
Dating back to the 2001 release of Jay-Z’s catalog classic
The Blueprint, Hov tapped Michael Jackson and 1990 s singer Chanté Moore for the background vocals on “Girls, Girls, Girls.” Opposite his brother Kanye West, Jigga sneakily called on The-Dream a decade later to do the same on their 2011