Some songs arrive quietly.
They don’t get released as major singles. They don’t dominate radio. They don’t become the song everybody associates with an artist.
And then, years later, another generation discovers them.
DeBarge’s “Stay With Me” is a perfect example.
Originally released as part of DeBarge’s 1983 album In a Special Way, “Stay With Me” wasn’t one of the group’s major singles. While songs such as “Time Will Reveal” and “All This Love” became important parts of the DeBarge story, “Stay With Me” remained deeper in the catalog.
Radio didn’t give it the same spotlight.
But the song wasn’t finished.
Not even close.
Years later, its distinctive musical foundation became part of two very different hip-hop and R&B moments. The Notorious B.I.G. famously sampled “Stay With Me” for his 1997 classic “One More Chance/Stay With Me (Remix),” helping introduce the DeBarge sound to a completely new generation.
Then came another major connection.
Ashanti built her 2002 hit “Foolish” around the same DeBarge recording, transforming elements of that original into one of the defining R&B songs of the early 2000s.
Suddenly, a song that had never been a major DeBarge single was everywhere again.
That’s the fascinating thing about music.
Sometimes the record doesn’t have its moment when it is released.
Its moment comes years later.
For DeBarge, “Stay With Me” became a musical time capsule—one that hip-hop and R&B artists could open decades later and find something still valuable inside.
The song’s journey also says something important about Black music.
There is a conversation between generations happening all the time. Artists listen to what came before them, producers dig through old records, and a melody that may have been overlooked in one era can become the foundation of a massive hit in another.
That’s not simply sampling.
That’s musical history talking to itself.
And in the case of “Stay With Me,” the conversation became enormous.
Biggie’s “One More Chance/Stay With Me (Remix)” became one of the most recognizable records associated with his legacy. Ashanti’s “Foolish” became a massive R&B hit and introduced the DeBarge-derived sound to millions of listeners who may have never known where it originated.
Think about that for a moment.
A song that wasn’t even a major single became part of two completely different musical eras.
The original may not have received the radio attention it deserved, but its melody survived.
It waited.
And eventually, somebody heard it and understood what was still there.
That’s exactly why Deep Cuts & B-Sides exists.
We’re looking for the songs that didn’t necessarily get the biggest push, the songs buried deeper in albums, and the records whose importance sometimes becomes clearer years after they were released.
“Stay With Me” wasn’t DeBarge’s biggest radio moment.
But history had something else planned for it.
Sometimes the songs radio didn’t tell you about become the songs another generation can’t stop listening to.
DEEP CUTS & B-SIDES
The Songs Radio Didn’t Tell You About.
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