The music game is treacherous. No matter how successful an artist gets, there's always a bigger fish, and there's no such thing as a "sure thing." Take for instance, platinum-selling rapper Young Jeezy, who recently recorded a song over a beat by up-and-coming production team The Inkredibles. The song was planned to be his first single, until it was snatched up by an even greater platinum-selling, larger artist, Jay-Z, for his album 'The Blueprint 3.'

The Inkredibles' manager, DJ Nasty, who co-owns We the Best Management with DJ Khaled, explained the situation in a recent interview, saying "I'm a keep it real, it was a record that we did for Jeezy. Khaled sent him the record and when Jeezy heard it, he was blown away. He did the record, he recorded it, he said 'Yo, this is going to be my first single, so I'm a try to get Jay on it'...Jay heard the beat and was like 'Yo, wassup Jeezy I need this.' Who's gonna tell Jay-Z 'No, no you can't have this.' So Jeezy said 'Let it ride, let's go,' and it's the movie it is now."

Jeezy's single became Jay-Z's 'Real As it Gets' featuring Young Jeezy, in the same way that so many hot new singles get scooped up by established artists in search of a single (Ron Browz's 'Arab Money' comes to mind). Not that Jeezy and The Inkredibles are complaining; Jeezy gets an appearance on 'BP3,' and likely a Jay-Z feature for himself, and The Inkredibles get a production credit on the highest profile album of the year, alongside legendary producers Timbaland, Kanye West and No I.D.

The Virginia Duo have been doing big things ever since they joined forces in 2007, and have since worked with T-Pain, Mary J. Blige, Nas, Jeezy, Rick Ross, Akon and many more.

"It was a good move, either way but you know the record was big," concluded their manager. "It was going to be a single on Jeezy's album, but it ended up being even another bigger movie on Jay's album."

All you rappers, guard your grill, and keep your hits away from the old folks.