Exclusive: Jon Bellion Has Only Scratched The Surface Penning Eminem & Rihanna’s ‘MMLP2’ Record “The Monster” - The Source

Q: How long ago was this?

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A: This was like nine months ago. And there was a lot of silence. You know, with Eminem, he can get anybody he wants on any record. So I’m thinking in my head like, the chances of this going on the album, let alone a single, have to be so slim. We knew the hook was super strong, and what I wrote was definitely a smash chorus, but I’m like ‘I heard he’s getting Kendrick on the album, and Skylar Grey – who’s like a beast with writing.’ And I just thought to myself that I didn’t know how this was going to work out.

Q: So with all of this doubt and confusion, when was the first moment where you knew it was real and that the hopes of it happening were becoming a reality?

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A: I was in France and I got a call from lawyer who said that he’d heard through the grapevine that Rihanna stopped her world tour to go and record your hook. And I was like…yea right, obviously. He said, “No, I’m telling you. I spoke to somebody super credible.” I asked him who he spoke with and he said he couldn’t say. All he could say was that it was somebody in the Shady camp. So I said alright, whatever. I get home from France after that and as I get off the plane somebody sent me a screenshot of a tweet Rihanna had tweeted (the one mentioned at the beginning of this article). My reaction was just plainly, “Oh sh%t. This could be the real deal right now.” But after that I’m thinking “monster” as in Lady Gaga. I was so confused. Fast forward a little bit – I see the MMLP2 tracklist – and it said “The Monster” featuring Rihanna. And at that point I was finally like “Oh my God”. I thought that if it’s Em & Rihanna it could be a single. Not long thereafter I read a tweet from Detroit Radio saying they were going to drop the record on Monday of the following week. I was leaving for London on the Friday before that, so I was in London waiting for the joint to drop.

Walk me through the day it was released.

I took a flight home on that Monday and my phone died on the flight – my flight was in the evening around the same time it was dropping so I had no idea if it’d happened or not or how well it was received. So I land and get in a cab. I ask the driver if I could charge my phone in his car, which he had no problem with, To make this even crazier, the first song on the radio [Hot 97] when I get in is “The Monster”, but I couldn’t even tell because Flex was straight dropping bombs over it.

And with you being from Long Island, that must be surreal. You’ve listened to Flex drop bombs over records for 15+ years.

Yea man, I’ve legit listened to Flex drop bombs since the 5th grade. It’s a weird feeling to suddenly hear a lyric that I wrote playing over the airwaves, especially at the clip that this one is playing at. I turned on SportCenter’s Top 10 yesterday and it was playing there too. Definitely surreal, but this is only the beginning.

Jon Bellion – Ungrateful Eyes