Mario recently appeared on Drink Champs and admitted the error of his ways from an early moment in his career involving JAY-Z, Madison Square Garden, and a date.
The Glad You Came crooner reflected on once being invited to perform alongside Hov at MSG as his debut single, “Just A Friend (2002),” was gaining traction.
“I was living in [New] Jersey at the time, around the time ‘Just A Friend‘ came out,” he began. “Jay [Z] had two shows at Madison Square Garden and he wanted me to come out on his set and would meet me and all that,” Mario continued. “At the time, I was dating this girl in Jersey and the night they wanted me to come out, I already had plans with her.”
He laughed at himself in hindsight before he continued the story. Mario said that his manager called him about the opportunity and he politely declined. “I was like, ‘Shh, ahh, I can’t.’ I passed up on that, and I don’t know if Jay took that some type of way, but I was young, having fun,” Mario admitted.
Though it’s not confirmed if Mario struck a nerve with Hov following that rejection, the singer did confess that he’s never been invited to the Roc Nation Brunch and even Ne-Yo said Jay still questions why he gave “Let Me Love You” to Mario.
“Shortly before the Def Jam situation happened, I leaned on songwriting. I was just a songwriter, so I wrote a song for Mario, [‘Let Me Love You’], so this song goes on and stays at number one for 12 or 13 weeks, something like that, becomes one of the most played songs in radio history,” Ne-Yo explained when during his 2023 episode of Club Shay Shay.
He continued, “The first time I got to meet JAY-Z, I’d been signed for a couple months at this point. I walk into the room and he’s in there. It’s in L.A. Reid’s office. I walk in, ‘Hey it’s nice to meet you.’ He like, ‘Man, why you give that damn song away? […] Why you give that damn song away?’ To this day, he yell at me about giving that damn song away. But I was just a songwriter when I wrote it, I didn’t write it for myself.”
Ne-Yo humbly praised Mario’s vocal ability, but did believe he could’ve done the record justice.
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