The legendary producer Swizz Beatz came in at the final hour to save Clipse's song "So Be It," a Pharrell-produced joint that samples the late Saudi legend Talal Madah's "Maza Akoulou." The track itself was caught in legal red tape, leaving it in licensing limbo, a notable absence from streaming platforms when "Let God Sort Em Out" was made commercially available. Instead, fans were confronted with a placeholder version titled "So Be It Pt. II" while the true blue version remained on ice.
According to the longtime manager of Clipse, Steven Victor, Swizz did not even know about the sample clearance issue until the day of the album's release, and he immediately put on his fireman hat.
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"Swizz was like, 'Why didn't you call me on this? 'So Be It?' Victor for Audiomack suggested it was four years, but it was released closer to three years earlier. "I said, 'I did, I sent it to you.'' He goes, 'I didn't know that was that record, so let me handle it."
Fortunately for him, fate had already gotten Swizz on a flight to Saudi Arabia that same day. Using connections in the region, for example, his camel racing team, called Saudi Bronx, he has so far only been able to take it as far as Qatar, and his Riyadh-based creative agency, Good Intentions. However, he leveraged his network and secured the clearance in person; No emails, no middlemen, and just Swizz, taking it in stride like a boss.
Too Soon in the early hours after the album's midnight release. The backup of "So Be It" was removed from streaming platforms before the original version could completely replace it, but not before the first pressing to vinyl, which has now become a collector's curiosity for diehards.
And how did the song come to exist in the first place? It all began with a scroll on Instagram. One of the project's executive producers, Pharrell, heard the Madah sample by watching Swizz's post and dialed up Pusha T in amazement.
"Pharrell heard it and he just called me, like, 'What the hell is that?" Pusha said to Ari Melber in a recent interview.
That spark eventually set fire to "So Be It," but if it weren't for Swizz's eleventh-hour maneuver, it could have remained buried behind clearance issues.
This isn't just an amusing story of the industry, but it also testifies to the power of organic relationships nurtured over time, respect for culture, and who to call or be when it counts. Swizz didn't just pick up the phone; he got on a plane, went across the pond, and did it.
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