Eric Benet said he was shocked when he found out that Lil Wayne mentioned his song “Sometimes I Cry” in his latest letter from prison as one of his favorites.
“That was dope. It’s a huge compliment,” Benet tells Billboard.com. “He’s sitting somewhere where he is contemplating on life, so, to be drawn to my song while he’s going through those things, it means even more. To me it means maturity.”
“I only listen to slow jams and ESPN… Oh, and if you haven’t heard the new song by Eric Benet, ‘Sometimes I Cry,’ please stop what you’re doing and check it out,” Weezy wrote in his latest letter from jail, posted on his weezythanxyou.com blog site last week. “It’s the best song I’ve heard since Maxwell’s ‘Woman’s Worth.’ It’s for grown folk. I actually listen to the radio all day waiting for that song.”
“Sometimes I Cry,” currently No. 5 on the Hot Adult R&B Airplay chart, finds Benet dealing with the regrets of losing someone. He says even when he first heard the song he felt “goosebumps.” [Listen to the track below.]
“When I’m in the studio, I’m making music for me but if it gives me goosebumps, that’s my barometer — that lets me know it’s ready for people to hear,” says Benet of the track.
Still, Benet wasn’t sure if fans of other genres would appreciate it, much less Wayne.
“Somewhere in the back of my mind I think, ‘country won’t feel this, polka won’t feel this.’ I know that’s an extreme jump from R&B and hip-hop, but, I don’t automatically think some hard hip-hop head will appreciate it. For Wayne to be feeling this song makes me feel like I struck a nerve.”
