Bilal Tells All: The Stories Behind His Biggest Rap Collaborations
For singers, making an amazing song with a rapper is an artform, and few understand the nuances of that art like Bilal Oliver. The Philadelphia native has been called upon time and time again to add his vocals to hip-hop tracks ever since he started making noise working with J. Dilla and Common in 2000. His 2001 debut, 1st Born Second—which featured work with Dr. Dre, Jadakiss, and Mos Def—only increased his standing as someone who was equally at home crooning over a hard hitting boom-bap beat or a laid-back soul sample. With the release of his second studio album, Airtight's Revenge, earlier this week, we caught up with him to discuss his illest rap collaborations.
Common f/ Bilal "The 6th Sense" (2000)
Guru f/ Bilal & Jay Dee "Certified" (2000)
Bilal f/ Jadakiss & Dr. Dre "Fast Lane (Remix)" (2001)
"The song was created by me and Dre, and it was just me singing on it. There were talks about Dre rhyming on it, but I thought it was just talk. Then cats started playing the song in New York just with my vocals on it. Then Jada got the track and rhymed on it himself because he liked it. They were playing it around New York like that. I think the first copies of the album, it was just Jadakiss. Finally Dre decided to lay a verse on it too. By the time we did the video, both of the cats were in the video, so it was brilliant. The first time I met Jadakiss was at the video shoot."
Talib Kweli f/ Bilal "Waitin' for the DJ" (2002)
"The 'waiting for the DJ' part came from another song that I did with this girl named Cherokee. Back in the day she had an album coming out and I think she decided not to put the song on the album. They sampled me singing that part and flipped the beat. Somebody played it for me, then Talib jumped on it. Then he asked me to sing a little bit more on it and that
Clipse f/ Bilal & Pharell Williams "Nightmares" (2006)
Laughs.
Jay-Z f/ Bilal "Fallin" (2007)
Laughs.Laughs.