You won’t believe what happened to Benny Blanco on his visit to Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Hamptons home a decade ago,
The musician opened up to Zane Lowe on Apple Music on Wednesday, March 24, about an unforgettable experience he had with the power couple. He recalled having his “life flashed before my eyes” after getting too close to Queen Bey with her husband close by.
He recalled, “One night we’re chilling. Beyoncé’s like, ‘Let’s have a beat battle.’ …I’m playing beats, and Jay-Z is there and we’re just drinking, chilling. He comes up to me and he’s freestyling in my ear. And I’m like, ‘Jay-Z is sitting here, getting drunk with me while Beyoncé is singing little riffs, and he’s freestyling in my ear. And we’re about to all go in the pool after.’ It’s these moments, I’m like, ‘How is this my life?'”
If there was one thing that worried him it was how to say goodbye to the couple.
“We’re sitting there. It’s the end of the night. It’s like the third night I’m there, OK? Everyone’s drunk,” he shared. “We’re having fun. It’s the best time ever. We’re saying, ‘Good night.’ And it’s at that point where I’m like…Do I hug Beyoncé? Like, what’s the protocol? What do you do? Are you just like, ‘Bye?'”
He explained that during his first night they weren’t close yet and the way he said goodbye to them was casual.
He continued, “But it’s like, we’re all getting to know each other and normally in that time I’d be like, ‘Ah, great to hang.’ So I’m like, do I go in for the hug? And you’re like a little dude…You’re with Jay-Z and Beyoncé. You’re at their house. They’re in shorts and a T-shirt. You’re sitting there.”
So he finally decided to give them a “very European” goodbye which took a wrong turn.
“I remember I go in for the hug…and then, I’m like, I’m going to kiss her on the cheek. That’s what you do. Yeah, you do. And I went to…kiss on the cheek, and I guess we missed a little bit. I definitely hit the corner of some sort of lip. I’m like, ‘Oh, my God. This is the worst thing in my life.'”
It was an awkward moment for Benny especially with Jay-Z watching everything unfolded.
“And I’m just like, my lip is here. Hers is there…and I look at Jay and I’m like, ‘Oh, OK. I’m dead. My life is over. It was great. Nice knowing you guys.’ My life flashed before my eyes,” he said with Jay-Z responding, “‘All right, bro. See you tomorrow.'”
But Benny pointed out, “No one noticed. She didn’t… This is where my neuroses comes in.”
He added, “The crazy thing is, that’s a situation where I never made music with Beyoncé that came out, but that moment in my life, going there, learning from them, I learned so much from her, learned so much from him.”
He concluded, “That experience is the best to me. To me, it’s about the journey.”
