Flipside

If you always felt this sounded familiar but couldn’t figure out why, Just Blaze has said he made the beat by reworking the “Roc the Mic” beat.

In an interview with Complex in 2011, producer Just Blaze revealed how the “Flipside” beat was the product of Hov asking him to make an R&B version of Beanie Sigel’s “Roc the Mic” for a place on Beyoncé’s debut solo album Dangerously in Love:

"That record was originally a derivative of ‘Roc The Mic.’ Jay wanted Beyoncé to do an R&B version of ‘Roc The Mic,’ so I flipped the beat and did an R&B version of it. At the end, Jay was going to get on it so I changed the beat up a little for him to rhyme to. Obviously, Beyoncé’s version of 'Roc The Mic’ never got finished. Freeway got his hands on the switch-up at the end that Jay was going to rhyme to, and did this song called 'Make The Cake.’ I said, ‘Alright, hold up. This is crazy, but it sounds too much like 'Roc The Mic,’ I’m going to have to switch up the beat.’ So I went in and did the beat over. I kept the music, but I beefed it up. I made it a lot bigger, so it didn’t sound like a 'Roc The Mic’ remix.

Oschino was originally on ‘Flipside’ and got yanked off. It was Freeway doing two verses and then Oschino on the last verse. But we put Peedi Crack on the second verse and the introduction, and the rest was history. ‘Flipside’ would have been Freeway’s first single, but it didn’t exist in its current form until after they decided to shoot the video for 'Alright.’ It existed as 'Make The Cake,’ and it was cool, but right before we shot the video for 'Alright,’ I made 'Flipside’ from 'Make The Cake.’ Then it was like, 'Yo, this is crazy, but it’s too late. We’re already in the process with this other record.’ So now 'Flipside’ still gets mad burn in the club, because it wasn’t his first record and it didn’t get burned out. That’s why you can still play it in the club. You can still react like the song just came out."