10 Musicians Who Turned Down Iconic Songs

As the 2010's opened up, Kanye West practically spent the first few years doing his own victory lap. After fans were ready to have him down for the count after the experimental sounds of 808s and Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was a watershed moment for his career, hitting the reset button and putting him firmly in that superstar lifestyle that he ended up leading for the foreseeable future. So what better way to celebrate than bring his Big Brother along for the ride?

When Watch the Throne was first being considered as a project, both Jay Z and Ye talked about putting some of their best material forward, while enlisting the help of fellow artists like Beyonce and Frank Ocean. Even with all of that star power though, Ye thought it would have been better to get one of his older songs back, dusting off this track that he was originally reserving for Pusha T's record. Since Pusha had already been collaborating on Twisted Fantasy on Runaway, this song clearly fit in his style, but things changed once Hova got ahold of it.

Complete with the twinkling chime sounds that open everything up, this is about as decadent as hip hop ever dared to get at that time, talking about repping the millions of dollars that you got on your way up to the top while aiming for something even bigger on the horizon. You could call it a little bit overindulgent if you wanted to, but this is still Kanye West and Jay Z. Maximalist is what they were known for at this time, and this entire song feels like them throwing one of the biggest ragers of both of their careers.