The Def Jam contract had run its course—ending in a great way, which never happens—and this felt like the right message to send on The Blueprint 3. The song is about the formation of Roc Nation—planting our flag in the ground. Me, aligned with the two greatest artists that I’ve found—Kanye West and Rihanna. The growth of us. It was originally a Rihanna demo but I took it in another direction. I wanted the whole song to feel like a march, a battle cry. Muhammad Ali had the shortest poem ever: ‘Me: We!’ My statement was ‘We Are!’ Maybe you didn’t hear me? We Are. Yeah I said it. We Are.

At a Watch the Throne listening session in 2011 Jay explained how Kanye had originally argued against releasing “Run This Town” as a Blueprint 3 single, when he became convinced that the song wasn’t a hit after watching the reaction to the record at a barbecue hosted by the Heavy Hitters.

That was initially a Rihanna record. She came down to Hawaii and we did it. We did a few records for her—and two of them became ‘Run This Town’ and Drake’s ‘Find Your Love.’ She came down and cut the record and then she passed on it. We were all like ‘What? You’re passing?’

Jay heard it and said ‘This is my record now.’ Then Kanye heard it and said ‘Nah, don’t give Jay that record—that’s my record.’ [Laughs] Then Jay hits me and says, ‘Don’t let Kanye get that record.’ So Jay got it, and Kanye ended up doing a verse. It was a memorable moment. We won a Grammy, but when you have those three on a record, you’re supposed to win a Grammy. That was a monster that didn’t sound like a commercial record. It was a pure hip-hop beat, and darker than a traditional pop record.

via Complex.