It’s no secret Beyoncé was one of the main subjects on JAY-Z’s latest album 4:44, with the R&B star being the focus on the album’s title track and even singing on Family Feud. But in a recent interview with the New York Times, producer No I.D. reveals the singer acted as the “de facto A&R” for the album.

While Hov’s 4:44 was worked on mostly by Jay, No I.D. and recording engineer Young Guru, when asked if there was any other input, No I.D. revealed Beyoncé had some say. “I always call Bey our de facto A&R,” the producer said. According to No I.D., thanks to “pillow talk,” every song on 4:44 went through the singer.

“Pillow talk is the strongest conversation on the planet,” he said. “Every song has to get past her ears, in my eyes. She came by a lot and played a good part in helping us get over hurdles on certain records. Of course she’s genius-level with that.”

Elsewhere in the interview, No I.D. spoke about avoiding a Lemonade response-album and instead just crafting 4:44 as the one response song.

“Me, him and Guru, his engineer, knew that we didn’t want him to do an album of Lemonade response. We just wanted him to respond and then let it be and still touch on other thing,” said the producer.

 

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