Fat Joe’s “Lean Back Remix” featuring Eminem, Remy Ma, Ma$e, and Lil Jon has officially crossed 100 million streams on Spotify. It is Eminem’s 107th track to reach this milestone.
Released in 2005 on “All or Nothing”, the remix has become the project’s most played track by a wide margin. While Joe’s collaborations with Nelly and Jennifer Lopez hover around 20 million streams each, “Lean Back” stands five times higher.
The original “Lean Back” topped the Billboard Hot 100 and went gold, but Joe decided to give it a southern-flavoured reboot. Speaking with Complex, he recalled how it came together:
“Lil Jon was the hottest producer in the game, so I got him to flip it. I told him, throw that crunk bounce on it. That was the wave”.
As for Eminem’s involvement, Fat Joe remembered how DJ Khaled pushed him to reach out:
“Me and Eminem were cool before he even had a record deal. I wouldn’t dare ask him for a favor. But [DJ] Khaled was gassing me, and this is when he was a little nigga in the crew. He kept telling me, ‘Get the whiteboy!’ I was like, ‘Nah, I ain’t gonna bother him.’ And he was like, ‘I’m telling you, that’s your man. He’ll do it!’
So I went and I asked him. And he hit me back like, ‘Yo Joe, you know you got one favor. Is this it?’ Eminem [actually rapped at first] on the original. And he was asking me, ‘Yo, why did you change the beat?!?’ And he’s another nigga [like Nas on ‘John Blaze’] who sent me mad verses. He did like 10 ‘Lean Back’ verses. He’s a perfectionist. It was incredible already. I didn’t understand why he would keep sending other ones”.
Joe also convinced Ma$e to step out of retirement for the remix, pushing him to spit tougher bars despite being fresh out of church life. The result was a star-packed remix that ended up to be the most streamed song from the album by far.
