“‘Knock Yourself Out’ was very important for my career. Back then, if you had a Neptunes track you had a hit. But the song that came out was not the original beat. I had another Neptunes beat that I thought was even crazier. I went down to Virginia with Pharrell. We chopped it up and went through a lot of beats and we ended up getting a joint that I thought was going to be ‘Knock Yourself Out.’ We had the hook and everything. We took so much time on the song that I didn’t even lay any verses. So we got back to New York and I was going to lay it down at the Hit Factory. I knew how I wanted the rhymes to flow. I already knew it was going to be my single.”
“But when I get to the studio the beat was not the original beat that Pharrell gave me in VA! I’m like, ‘Holy shit! How could you do this to me?!!!’ Nobody told me that the track had been changed. I’m like, ‘What happened to the other beat?!!!’ So Pharrell’s people start telling me that he didn’t like it. And I’m thinking, ‘Damn, he’s just going to switch it without me?’ But I ended up laying it down. I started listening to it and I liked what I heard. Once we sent it to Pharrell to mix it and it came back it was fire! I knew the ladies was going to love it. We put it out and it did great. To this day, when I perform ‘Knock Yourself Out’ it still gets a marvelous response. Thanks to wax.
Jadakiss – Knock Yourself Out feat. Pharrell (Dirty Version) (2001)