Sean Paul has responded to rumors that he was in a relationship with Beyoncé following their 2003 hit song ‘Baby Boy.’
When asked if he had hooked up with the Grammy winner by The Daily Beast’s Marlow Stern in a story published Monday, May 16, Paul replied, “No.” “No way! I wish I could! She’s stunning.”
He said he was excited when she asked him to work with her, but there was soon gossip that the two were dating. Despite the fact that she was dating rapper Jay-Z.
“We had to talk about it,” Paul explained, explaining that their conversation came after the first two times they performed the song.
“We only had three performances, one of which was at Reggae Sumfest.” We were both on the Rock the Mic Tour at the time. “It was 2003,” Sean Paul explained.
“She wasn’t there every day, but she would come on certain dates and perform [Jay- Z’s] song ‘Crazy in Love.'” We left one day to film the video and then returned to play Sumfest. That was the first occasion. The second time was in Los Angeles, and something strange happened, which I believe started the rumors. Strange things began to happen during the performances, which was strange.”
Sean Paul recalled that the concert in Los Angeles did not go as planned.
“I did my show, and then she performed, and they told me to stick around because we’ll do ‘Baby Boy,'” he explained. We do it, and I run out there, and the crowd goes crazy, but after a while, it appears that I have sapped their energy.
“And it’s strange because I was going crazy out there.” When the song was finished, I returned to the stage and my own band was enraged, as if to say, ‘Man, that’s f***ed up.’ Did you hear yourself? We couldn’t hear you over the din of the crowd. Your microphone was turned off.’ ‘How the f*** did that happen?’ I thought.
Then there was the third performance in Scotland.
“That’s when we had the talk, because the rumors got really crazy. I landed in Scotland and it was this MTV event, and there were paparazzi everywhere,” Paul said.
“We ended up doing the rehearsal and everything was good, and the performance was going to be where I come up from under the stage, and then we both walk to a big center thing in the middle of the stadium which was surrounded by fire. That all happens, and then it reaches my part — ‘You’re a top, top, girl’ — and the track keeps going, ‘Baby boy, you stay…. Baby boy, you stay…’ just repeating. I was like, ‘What’s going on here!?’ She was pissed and was like ‘I need to speak to you.’ So, we go back and talk and she’s like ‘What’s all these rumors about?’ and I’m like ‘Yo, I’m not saying s***,’ and she’s like ‘These rumors f*** with my career. I just want you to know that.’ I was like ‘They don’t fuck with mine. So, listen: I met Jay before you, and we was friends, so me and him should talk. If he feels a way about that, then we should talk, because it’s not coming from me.'”
Paul was asked if he thought Jay-Z had anything to do with the audio issues.
He replied: “It couldn’t be because he wasn’t even there. But people started to say this s***.
“And there was one more performance we were supposed to do at the VMAs, and she said to me ‘We’re gonna have rehearsal, so look out.’
“The day before the VMAs happens, there’s this press day where you speak to every radio station, and I’m hearing somebody rehearsing ‘Baby Boy.’ So, I’m like ‘What’s going on?’ We went to the label and they were like ‘Yo…they’re not gonna do the song with you.’
“So, I’m sitting there in the crowd with my present wife and Paris Hilton is sitting in front of me. Beyoncé is coming down the stairs singing the song and Paris Hilton turns to me and goes ‘Why aren’t you up there?’ It was embarrassing and weird.”
Sean Paul said he still planned to do ‘Baby Boy’ again.
He recalled: “So, the next day, I was supposed to perform in Washington, D.C., and do the song with her for her father.
“I went there, did my show, and then waited around for a while. And I got pissed off. They were like ‘There are 3,000 influential people waiting out there for you to do it.’ And I was like, ‘There were 50 million people watching the VMAs. I’m not doing it.’ And I left. That was the last time we did the show, and by that time I was saying publicly that there was nothing going on. It fell on me. Nobody was asking them about it. But you know what? It was a big, fat, sexy song.”