While critics may have greeted Nicki Minaj’s sophomore release Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded with more or less sour responses, the song “HOV Lane” has earned praise from fans and detractors alike. Now, the track’s producers Ryan and Smitty speak on how the song came into existence.
In a recent interview with Hip Hop N More, the Los Angeles-based duo discussed how an encounter with the album’s co-executive producer Safaree led them to collaborating with the YMCMB starlet. They said that their friend Young Lo introduced them to Safaree, who was so impressed with their production that he asked them to send Nicki beats. They also added that the beat was made from scratch with Nicki specifically in mind.
“One of our good friends, the homie Young Lo, brought over Safaree who co-executive produced Nicki’s album, to our studio and took a liking to some of our stuff,” Smitty explained. “And he encouraged us like, ‘Yo you need to start sending beats to Nicki.’ So me and Ryan got together and started making all kinds of crazy beats, with her in focus and the sound they wanted. Eventually we sent something to them. And Safaree hit us back saying she really likes it. From there, she had us make a couple of changes to the beat to make it for her liking and from there it was pretty much automatic. It was really exciting. Shows you how far proper connections can take you in the business.”
Ryan added, “Yeah, what’s really cool about that beat is that we made it specifically for Nicki. There was no other artist intended. We wanted to get on her project and we did.”
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