UGK and OutKast‘s “International Players Anthem (I Choose You)” may be a certified Hip Hop classic, but the song didn’t come together without a little friction between Pimp C and André 3000.
While appearing on LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s The Shop series, 3 Stacks reflected on the late Texas rapper being “really mad” at him when he submitted his verse for the 2007 hit.
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“Rest in peace Pimp [C], but I got a [funny] story about that,” André said when co-host Paul Rivera asked him about his verse on the song. “Pimp was so mad at me because they sent the beat and I wrote my verse, put my words down and I took the beat out for me to rap.
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“When I sent it back to them, Pimp was like, ‘Fuck this muthafucka, man! This n-gga done goddamn took my beat out! Who the fuck he think he is?!’ So he was really mad at the choice that I had made to take the beat [out].
“I don’t know if it was Bun [B] or somebody, they were like, ‘Nah, but you don’t understand, when that beat drop, though, it sets it off.’ So it’s almost like a set-up. So it worked, and once he got that, he was like, ‘Okay, okay.’ But he was so mad at me.”
Check out a preview of the episode below ahead of its premiere on YouTube on Thursday (July 11). Guests also include Sexyy Red, fashion designer Jerry Lorenzo, BMX athlete Nigel Sylvester and comedian/actress Jiaoying Summers.
Veteran A&R Jeff Sledge previously told this story on an episode of ItsTheReal’s A Waste of Time podcast in 2016.
“When André sent his piece back and had no drums, [Pimp C] was pissed off,” he explained. “He was like ‘Fuck André, man! How the fuck is he gonna send my shit back and take my drums out? Fuck that.’ He was going off about André taking the drums out.
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“I was like, ‘Chad, hold up fam. Let’s rock it like that because when André doing a capella and then when the beat drops, that’s when your verse drops. And then your verse is gonna lift the record up because now the beat is rocking and your verse is kicking.’
“And he’s like, ‘Alright, Jeff. I’m gonna give it a shot. If it fucks up, it’s on you.’”
Juicy J, who co-produced “International Players Anthem” alongside DJ Paul, also shared an interesting fact about the song in an interview with HipHopDX in 2020.
The Memphis rap legend revealed that the track was originally supposed to be a Three 6 Mafia song but label politics got in the way of them appearing on the final cut.
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“Me and Paul had did a verse on that first, and the label — we didn’t even know this — the label had denied the clearance,” he said. “I was like, ‘What the fuck?! Why y’all didn’t let me know?!’ I was ready to go up there and cause hell at that label.
“So then they put OutKast on it. I didn’t even know. I was like, ‘What happened to our verses?’ They were like, ‘We couldn’t clear y’all so we put OutKast on it.’ I was like, ‘Fuck! Put our verses back on it!’ André 3000 and muthafucking Big Boi? Legendary.
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“I called that label and I can’t even tell the shit I said. I was so fucking mad […] I think we had ‘Stay Fly’ out or ‘Poppin’ My Collar’ was at radio and they didn’t want somebody else to come with a single. You know, [label] politics.”
