Rick Rubin recalls Def Jam president saying Jay-Z’s ‘99 Problems’ would ‘never be a single’

What was said

"I remember giving it to the people at Def Jam and the person who was the president of Def Jam at the time listened to and he's like, "Oh, this is great. It'll never be a single, but it'll be a great album track.""

Rick Rubin says that after he and Jay-Z made ‘99 Problems’, he played the track to people at Def Jam and the label’s president at the time told him it would “never be a single” but would be a strong album track. Rubin says the executive’s reasoning was that it did not sound like what was already on radio, which Rubin frames as an old, risk-averse way of thinking.