Raphael Saadiq says Beyoncé’s “Cuff It” was originally a record for Tony! Toni! Tone!

Can you believe it? Beyoncé‘s hit song “Cuff It” wasn’t originally intended for the singer, but instead the legendary R&B group Tony! Toni! Tone!

Raphael Saadiq, one-third of the beloved ’90s boy band, said so in a recent interview with Vulture, explaining he immediately thought of Queen B as someone who’d make the most of the track.

“That record was going to be a Tonyies record, the part that just sounds like [mimics the ‘Cuff It’ guitar riff],” Saadiq said.

He described how he “was going to do it,” but instead gave it to a friend, inquiring about Beyoncé as a possible artist to take over. 

“She’s one of those people where if she’s feeling it, she’s going 100 percent in,” Saadiq thought, adding that he knew her version was “going to move people. It’s going to work.”

Saadiq, hitmaker The-Dream and others ended up with producer credits on the song.

Saadiq noted, “I already knew it was one of them joints. I always said, ‘If you drop the right music on an artist, it could go.'”

It certainly did “go.”

“Cuff It” peaked at number one on Billboard‘s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Rhythmic charts, won Best R&B Song at the 65th Grammy Awards and was performed by Beyoncé on stages across the globe during her history-making Renaissance World Tour. 

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