"He wrote that song in 10 minutes"— Common reveals he passed on around 10 beats Kanye West made for him

Legendary rapper Common opened up on passing up a plethora of beats Kanye West had made for him. During an appearance on the Thursday, May 16, episode of the 7 PM In Brooklyn podcast, the rapper revealed that he passed on the beats for Kanye's I Wonder and Heard Em Say, which later became huge hits.

As for Heard Em Say, Common recalled—

"He (Kanye West) wrote that song in 10 minutes."

Back in 2021, during an appearance on The Coda Collection, the rapper opened up about wishing that he did a third album with Ye, who executive produced Common's Finding Forever and Be.

Along with being a rapper Common is also a successful actor (Image via Instagram/@common)

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Common passed up on the beats for Kanye West's Heard Em Say and I Wonder

On a recent appearance on Carmelo Anthony and The Kid Mero's 7 PM In Brooklyn podcast, rapper Common opened up about passing up on some hugely popular Kanye West beats. The rapper revealed that there were "at least 10 Ye beats" that he passed on.

The rapper mentioned Ye's track Everything I Am from Graduation, in which Ye mentioned Common passing up on his beats. West rapped at the beginning of Everything I Am—

"Common passed on this beat, I made it to a jam/ Now everything I'm not made me everything I am."

Common said it was "crazy" because he never took any Ye beats at the time he met him back in 96-97. He had more memories of "joints" that he passed on beats that Ye made for him that ended up being huge. According to the rapper, this included I Wonder from Graduation a lot of tracks from Ye's Late Registration album like Heard Em Say. The rapper recalled—

"He made that beat (Heard Em Say) for me. I was like 'This beat dope', he (Kanye West) said, 'Man you want it?', I was like 'Man I gotta...'. Because it didn't feel like it was fitting my album, the album beat."

Ye once again asked Common if he was sure he didn't want the beat and the rapper held his ground. According to Common, he ended up sitting there and watching Kanye West write the lyrics to Heard Em Say in just 10 minutes. The rapper recalled—

"I was just like, 'This is meant for you.'"

Common also revealed on the podcast that some of the beats used by The Dream, including in his 2005 track Dreams and Wouldn't Get Far from The Game's Doctor's Advocate album were also initially meant for him.

Kanye West had entirely executively produced Common's 2005 album Be which became the rapper's highest-selling album of all time. He also primarily produced the following Finding Forever which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Common appeared on The Coda Collection in 2021 and said—

"If there’s anything that I sometimes wish is I wished I would have did a third one with Kanye."

He elaborated—

"I will say that. It’s very red, I’d be like, ‘Man, I should’ve did this or wish I did this.’ Because everything happens in this divine time. But I would’ve loved to have done a third album with Ye just… And maybe that’ll happen at some other point."

Common did try making a third album happen by often presenting Ye with some of the stuff he was working on, the rapper would like it and even sometimes hop in and do some vocals. But a third album with Ye never really materialized for Common.