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So this A&R over at Roc-A-Fella, named Hip HopPicked the "Truth" beat for BeanieAnd I was in the session with him, I had my demo with meYou know, like I always doI played a songs, he's like "Who that spittin'?" I'm like "It's me"He's like, "Oh, okay."Uh, he started talkin' to me on the phone, going back and forthJust askin' me to send him beatsAnd I think he's tryna get into managing producers'Cause he had this other kid named Just Blaze he was messin' withAnd um, he was friends with my mentor, No I.D.And No I.D. told him"Look, man, if you wanna mess with Kanye you gotta tell him that you like the way he rap"I was all, I dunno if he was gassin' me or notBut he's like he wanna manage me as a rapper and a producerI'm like, oh shitI was messin' with, uh, D-Dot alsoPeople were like this, started talking about the ghost productionBut that's how I got in the gameIf it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be hereSo you know, after they picked that "Truth" beatI was figuring I was gonna get some more workBut shit just wasn't poppin' off like thatI was stayin' in Chicago, I had my own apartmentI be doin' like just beats for local acts just to try to keep the lights onAnd then to go out and buy, get a Pelle Pelle off lay-awayGet some Jordans or something or get a TechnoMarineThat's what we wore back thenI made this one beat where I sped up this Harold Melvin sampleI played it for Hip over the phoneHe's like, "Oh, yo that shit is crazyJay might want it for this compilation album he doin' called The Dynasty"And at that time, like the drums really weren't soundin' right to meSo I went and um, I was listening to Dre Chronic 2001 at that timeAnd really I just, like bit the drums off "Xxplosive"And put it like with it sped up sampleAnd now it's kind of like my whole style, where it startedWhen he rapped on "This Can't be Life"And that was like, really the first beat of that kind that was on The Dynasty albumI could say that was the the resurgence of the soul soundYou know, I got to come in and track the beatAnd at the time I was still with my other managementI really wanted to roll with Hip HopJust I, I just needed some fresh air, you know what I'm sayin'?'Cause I, I been there for a whileI appreciate what they did for me butYou know there's a time in every man's life where he gotta make a changeAnd try to move up to the next levelThat day I came and I tracked the beat and I got to meet Jay-Z and he said"Oh, you a real soulful dude"And he, uh, played the song 'cause he already spit his verse by the time I got to the studioYou know he do it one takeHe said tell me what you think of thisAnd I heard it, and I was thinking like, manI really wanted more like of the simple type Jay-ZI ain't want like the, the more introspective, complicated rhy- or the, in my personal opinionSo he asked me, "What you think of it?"And I was like, "Man, that shit tight, " you know what I'm sayin'? What I'ma tell him?I was on the train, man, you knowSo after that I went back homeAnd, man I'm, I'm just in Chicago, I'm tryna do my thingYou know, I got groups, I got acts I'm tryna get onAnd like wasn't nothin really like poppin' off the way it should have beenOne of my homies that was one of my artists, he got signedBut it was supposed to really go through my production companyBut he ended up going straight with the companySo, like I'm just straight holdin' the phoneGettin' the bad news that dude was tryna leave my companyAnd I got evicted at the same timeSo I went down and tracked the beats from himAnd I took that money, came back, packed all my shit up in a U-HaulMaybe about ten days before I had to actually get outSo I ain't have to deal with the landlord, 'cause he's a jerkMe and my mother drove toNewark, New Jersey, I hadn't even seen my apartmentI remember I pulled up, I unpacked all my shitYou know, we went to IKEA, I bought a bed, I put the bed together myselfI loaded up all my equipment, and the first beat I made was, uh, "Heart of the City"And Beans was still working on his album at that timeSo I came up there to Baseline, it was Beans' birthday, matter of factAnd I played like seven beatsAnd, you know I guess he was in the zone, he already had the beats that he wantedI had did "Nothing Like It" already at that timeBut then Jay walked inI remember he had a Gucci bucket hat onI remember it like, like it was yesterdayAnd Hip Hop said, "Yo, play that one beat for him"So I played "Heart of the City"And really I made "Heart of the City, " I really wanted to give that beat to DMXThen I played another beat, then I played another beatAnd I remember that Gucci bucket, he took it and like put it over his faceAnd made one of them faces like, oohTwo days later I'm in Baseline and I seen DameDame didn't know who I was and I was like, "Yo, what's up I'm Kanye""You that kid that gave all them beats to Jay? Yo, this nigga got classics to your beats, B"You know how he talk his shitI'm like "oh, shit"And all this time I'm starstruck, manI'm still thinking 'bout, you know I'm picturing these niggas on the showThe Streets is Watching or whateverI'm lookin', these were superstars in my eyesAnd they still are, you knowSo, Jay came in and he spit all these songs like in one day, and in two daysI gotta bring up one thing, you know, go back to in storyThe day I did the 'Can't be Life' beat I trackedI remember Lenny S, he had some Louis Vuitton sneakers on, he think he flyAnd Hip Hop was there, I think Ty-Ty, John Meneilly, a bunch of peopleI didn't know all these people at the time, they was in the room, and I said, "Yo, Jay I could rap"And I spit this rap that said, uh "I'm killin' y'all niggas on that lyrical shitMayonnaise colored Benz, I push miracle whips"And I saw his eyes light up when I said that lineBut you know the rest, the rap was like real wack and shit, so that's all the responseHe said, "Man, that was tight"And that was it, you know, I ain't get no deal or nothin'Okay, fast forwardSo, Blueprint, "H to the Izzo, " my first hit singleAnd I just took that proudly, built relationships with peopleMy relationship with Kweli I think was one of the best ones to ever happen to my career as a rapperBecause, you know, of course later he allowed me to go on tour with himMan, I appre-, I love him for thatAnd at this time, you know I didn't have a dealI had songs, and I had relationships with all these A&R's'Cause they wanted beats from me, so they'd call me up, I'd play them some beats"Gimme a beat that sound like Jay-Z"You know, they dick riders, whateverSo I'll play them these post-Blueprint beats or whatever and then I'll play my shitI'll be like, "Yo, but I rap too"Ayy, I guess they was lookin' at me crazy 'cause you know'Cause I ain't have a jersey on or whateverEverybody out there listen hereI played them 'Jesus Walks' and they didn't sign meYou know what happened, it was some A&R's that fucked with me thoughBut then like the heads, it'd be somebody at the company that'll say "nah"Like, Dave Lighty fucked with me, my nigga Mel brought me to a bunch of labelsJessica Rivera, manI'm not gonna say nothin' to mess my promotion upLet's just say I ain't get my dealThe nigga that was behind me, I mean, he wasn't even a niggaThe person that actually kicked everything off was Joe 3H from Capitol RecordsHe wanted to sign me really badDame was like, "Yo, you got a deal with Capitol? Okay, man, just make sure it's not wack"Then one day I just went ahead and played itI wanted to play some songs, cause you know Cam was in the room, Young Guru, and Dame was in the roomSo I played, actually it's a song you'll never hearWell maybe I might use it so, it's called 'Wow'I go to Jacob with 25 thou', you go with 25 hundred, wowI got eleven plaques on my walls right nowYou got your first gold single, damn, nigga, wow"Like the chorus went likeDon't bite that chorus, I might still use itSo I play that song for him and he's like "oh, shit""I ain't gonna front, it's kinda hot"Like they still weren't looking at me like a rapperAnd I'm sure Dame figuredLike, man, if he do a whole album, if his raps is wackAt least we can throw Cam on every song and save the album, you knowSo, uh, Dame took me into the hallwayHe's like "Yo, man, B, B, you don't want a brick, you don't want a brick""You gotta be under an umbrella or you'll get rained on"I told Hip Hop and Hip Hop was like, "oh, word?"Actually, even with that I was still about to take the deal with Capitol'Cause it was already on the table and 'cause of my relationship with 3HThat, you know, 'cause I told him I was gonna do it, and I'm a man of my wordI was gonna roll with what I said I was gonna doThen, you know, I'm not gonna name no namesBut people told me, "Oh, he's just a producer rapper"And told 3H that told the heads of the CapitolAnd right, the day I'm talking about, I planned out everything I was gonna do, manI had picked out clothes, I already started booking studio sessionsI started arranging my album, thinking of marketing schemes, man, I was ready to goAnd, and they had Mel call me, they said, "Yo, Capitol pulled on the deal"And, you know I told them that Roc-A-Fella was interested andI don't know if they thought that was just something I was saying to gas them upTo try to push the price up or whateverI went up, I called G, I said, "Man, you think we could still get that deal with Roc-A-Fella?"
So won't you raise your glass, won't you?So won't you raise your glass, won't you?So won't you raise your glass, won't you?So won't you raise your glass, won't you?