“Before any hit,” he tells EW on the 20th anniversary of the pop group’s self-titled debut album, “before any No. 1, remember that I said, ‘They went from a dream to the young Supremes.’”

He met the then-foursome at a hotel their label had arranged. When he asked them to sing for him, the impression was enormous. “It felt real — and it felt raw,” he said. “There’s two kind of singers: There’s singers that sing and then there’s singers where when they sing you feel something. That’s a different kind of singing, and I felt it.”

He also did, for the record, call them the “young Supremes.” That’s a reference to his verse on the foursome’s debut single, “No, No, No,” which he also produced. The song peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1998, and Jean, now 48, ended up taking Destiny’s Child on the road as his opening act.

He continues: When Destiny’s Child hit the arena, they were groomed and seasoned not to be a one-hit wonder but a touring act.”