Foxx begrudgingly sang

Photo: All rights reserved.

Jamie Foxx

Jamie Foxx "begrudgingly" lent his vocals to Kanye West's track Slow Jamz after he was convinced the rapper wouldn't become famous.

The actor-and-musician provided his smooth voice for the chorus of the 2003 hit, which also featured rapper Twista.

But what Jamie didn't know at the time of recording it was that then little-known Kanye would soon become a global success who is now a multimillionaire.

Recalling how he first met the Stronger hitmaker at a party he threw, not long after Kanye was involved in a near-fatal car crash that left him with a shattered jaw, during an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden on Thursday, Jamie said, "I had this party " it was Puff, it was Jay Z, it was all these people and then this kid walks in and his jaw was a little swollen and he had a backpack on. I said, "Who's that?' They said, "That's Kanye, that's the new dude.' He started rapping, blew my head off he was so incredible."

Kanye then approached Jamie, who at that point only had 1994 album Peep This out, about making a track together, to which the Dreamgirls actor invited the then-aspiring musician into his recording studio.

Trying to show off with his vocals, Jamie belted out the famous chorus line of Slow Jamz, "She said she want some Marvin Gaye, some Luther Vandross,' after being told the lyrics. But Kanye wasn't impressed, as he advised Jamie to just "sing the song regular".

"In my mind I'm thinking this young fella don't know about R&B, so I sing it begrudgingly thinking he ain't gonna make it, this ain't gonna take off," Jamie quipped. "I left and went and did a bad movie for six weeks, I come back and my boy (music exec) Breyon Prescott said, "Yo, remember that song you said was whack? It's number one in the country.' We was in Miami and that's how it took off."