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R. Kelly has revealed Jay-Z was not the person he wanted to work with for their “Best Of Both Worlds” LP. According to a recent interview Kelly said the late Tupac Shakur was initially slated to represent the album’s hip-hop aspect.
“Well ‘I Wish’ was basically about Tupac at first. I met Tupac in L.A.- the [Hotel Nikko], and he was rolling by in his drop-top whatever hot car. I seen him, and I yelled out, “‘Pac! ‘Pac!” He was driving by, rolling by himself. I’m like, ‘This n*gga got a lot of balls to be rolling by hisself!” So we kicked it for a minute, I said “Dude, we need to do an album.” See, The Best Of Both Worlds was for me and Pac at first. “I Wish” was gonna be the first song we were gonna do.”
The Best of Both Worlds album dropped in 2002 and debuted at No. 2 on the Top 200 chart.
The Best of Both Worlds falls terribly short of both artists’ high standards, unfortunately, sounding as if the vocals were phoned in, which in the case of Jay-Z they probably were, for his contributions (interjections and verses, mainly) sound like filler here. Kelly fares better throughout The Best of Both Worlds, supplying some potent hooks and co-producing the tracks with the Trackmasters (i.e., Poke and Tone), but not even he can carry an album this uninspired. Still, there are some moments where the collaborations click, particularly on the album’s singles, “Get This Money” and “Take You Home with Me.” Overall, though, The Best of Both Worlds rates among the poorest efforts — arguably the poorest — in either Kelly’s or Jay-Z’s catalog to date. (All Music)
