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Kanye West
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[Intro: Jay-Z (Kanye)]
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[laughing]
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Yo fuck you, Kanye, first and foremost
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For making me do this shit. Muh'fucker
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Had to throw everybody out the motherfucking room
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'Cause they don't fucking..
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(I'd like to propose a toast)
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(I said toast motherfucker)
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[Chorus: Kanye]
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And I am
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And they ask me, they ask me, they ask me, I tell them
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Raise your glasses, your glasses, your glasses to the sky
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This is the last call for alcohol, for the..
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So get your ass up off the wall
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[Verse:]
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The all around the world Digital Underground, Pac
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The Rudloph the red nosed reindeer of the Roc
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I take my chain, my 15 seconds of fame
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And come back next year with the whole fucking game
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Ain't nobody expect Kanye to end up on top
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They expected that College Dropout to drop and then flop
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Then maybe he stop savin' all the good beats for himself
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Rocafella's only niggaz that help
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My money was thinner than Sean Paul's goatee hair
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Now Jean Paul Gaultier cologne fill the air, here
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They say he bourgie, he big-headed
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Won't you please stop talking about how my dick head is
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Flow infectious, give me 10 seconds
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I'll have a buzz bigger than insects in Texas
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It's funny how wasn't nobody interested
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'Til the night I almost killed myself in Lexus
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[Chorus:]
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[Verse 2:]
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Now was Kanye the most overlooked? Yes sir
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Now is Kanye the most overbooked? Yes sir
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Though the fans want the feeling of A Tribe Called Quest
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But all they got left is this guy called West
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Better take Freeway, throw him on tracks with Mos Def
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Call him Kwa-li or Kwe-li, I put him on songs with Jay-Z
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I'm the Gap like Banana Republic and Old Navy, and oooh
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It come out sweeter than old Sadie
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Nice as Bun-B when I met him at the Source awards
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Girl he had with him - ass coulda won the horse awards
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And I was almost famous, now everybody loves Kanye
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I'm almost Raymond'
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Some say he arrogant. Can y'all blame him?
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It was straight embarrassing how y'all played him
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Last year shoppin my demo, I was tryin' to shine
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Every motherfucker told me that I couldn't rhyme
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Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem
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Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams
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I use it as my gas, so they say that I'm gassed
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But without it I'd be last, so I ought to laugh
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So I don't listen to the suits behind the desk no more
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You niggaz wear suits 'cause you can't dress no more
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You can't say shit to Kanye West no more
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I rocked 20, 000 people, I was just on tour, nigga
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I'm Kan, the Louis Vuitton Don
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Bought my mom a purse, now she Louis Vuitton Mom
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I ain't play the hand I was dealt, I changed my cards
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I prayed to the skies and I changed my stars
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I went to the malls and I balled too hard
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'Oh my god, is that a Black Card? '
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I turned around and replied, why yes but I prefer the term
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African American Express
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Brains, power, and muscle, like Dame, Puffy, and Russell
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Your boy back on his hustle, you know what I've been up to
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Killin y'all niggaz on that lyrical shit
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Mayonnaise colored Benz, I push Miracle Whips
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[Chorus:]
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"... last call for alcohol, for my niggaz"
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[Outro:]
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So this A&are over at Rocafella, named Hiphop
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Picked the Truth beat for Beanie. And I was in the session with him
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I had my demo with me. You know, like I always do
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I play the songs, he's like "Who that spittin?"
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I'm like "It's me." He's like "Oh, well okay."
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Uhh, he started talkin to me on the phone
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Going back and forth, just askin me to send him beats
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And I'm thinking he's trying to get into managing producers
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Cause he had this other kid named Just Blaze he was messin with
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And um, he was friends with my mentor, No id
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And No I'd told him, "look man, you wanna mess with Kanye
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You need to tell him that you like the way he rap"
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[No id:] "Yo, you wanna sign him, tell him you like how he rap"
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I was all, I dunno if he was gassin' me or not
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But he's like he wanna manage me as a rapper and a producer
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[Hiphop:] "I'll sign you as a producer and a rapper",
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I'm like oh shit
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I was messin with, uh, D-Dot also
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People were like this, started talking about the Ghost production
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But that's how I got in the game. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be here
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So you know. After they picked that Truth beat
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I was figuring I was gonna do some more work
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But shit just went poppin off like that. I was stayin in Chicago
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I had my own apartment. I be doin' like, just beats for local acts
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Just to try to keep the lights on, and then to go out and buy
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Get a Pelle Pelle off lay-away, get some Jordans or something
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Or get a Technomarine, that's what we wore back then
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I made this one beat where I sped up this Hal Melville sample
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I played it for Hip over the phone, he's like "oh, yo that shit is crazy
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Jay might want it for this compilation album he doin, called The Dynasty. "
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And at that time, like the drums really weren't soundin' right to me
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So I went and um, I was listening to Dre Chronic 2001 at that time
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And really I just, like picked the drums off Xxplosive and put it like
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With it sped up, sampled, and now it's kind of like my whole style
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When it started, when he rapped on 'This Can't be Life. '
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And that was like, really the first beat of that kind that was on the Dynasty album
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I could say that was the, the resurgence of this whole sound
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You know, I got to come in and track the beat, and at the time
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I was still with my other management. I really wanted to roll with
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Hiphop. 'Cause I, I just needed some fresh air, you know what I'm
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Sayin, 'cause I been there for a while, I appreciated what they did
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For me, but, you know there's a time in every man's life where he
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Gotta make a change, try to move up to the next level. And that day I
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Came and I tracked the beat and I got to meet Jay-Z and he said, "oh
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You a real soulful dude" [Jay-Z: "you a real soulful dude"]. And he
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Uh, played the song 'cause he already spit his verse by the time I got
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To the studio, you know how he do it, one take. And he said
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"tell me what you think of this." And I heard it, and I was thinking
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Like, man, I really wanted more like of the simple type Jay-Z, I ain't
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Want like the, the more introspective, complicated rhy- or the, in my
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Personal opinion. So he asked me, "what you think of it?"
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[Jay-Z:] "so what you thinkin?"
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And I was like, "man that shit tite,"
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You know what I'm sayin', man what I'ma tell him? I was on the train
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Man, you know. So after that I went back home. And man I'm, I'm just
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In Chicago, I'm trying to do my thing. You know, I got groups. I got
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Acts I'm trying to get on, and like there wasn't nothin really like
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Poppin' off the way it should have been. One of my homeys that was one
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Of my artists, he got signed. But it was supposed to really go through
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My production company, but he ended up going straight with the
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Company. So, like I'm just straight holdin' the phone, gettin' the bad
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News that dude was tryin' to leave my company. And I got evicted at
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The same time. So I went down and tracked the beats from him, I took
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That money, came back, packed all my shit up in a you-Haul, maybe about
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Ten days before I had to actually get out. So I ain't have to deal
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With the landlord 'cause he's a jerk. Me and my mother drove to
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[Mother:] "Come on, let's just go"
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Newark, New Jersey. I hadn't even seen my apartment.
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I remember I pulled up
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[Mother:] "Kanye, baby, we're here",
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I unpacked all my shit. You know, we went to Ikea, I bought a
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Bed, I put the bed together myself. I loaded up all my equipment, and
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The first beat I made was, uh, 'Heart of the City. '
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And Beans was still working on his album at that time, so I came up
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There to Baseline, it was Beans' birthday, matter of fact, and I
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Played like seven beats. And, you know I could see he's in the zone
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He already had the beats that he wanted, I did nothing like already at
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That time. But then Jay walked in. I remember he had a Gucci bucket
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Hat on. I remember it like, like it was yesterday. And Hiphop said
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"yo play that one beat for him." And I played 'Heart of the City. ' And
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Really I made 'Heart of the City, ' I really wanted to give that beat to dmx.
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[Hiphop:] "No I think Jay gon' like this one right here".
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And I played another beat, and I played another beat. And I remember that
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Gucci bucket, he took it and like put it over his face and made one of
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Them faces like 'ooooooooooh. ' Two days later I'm in Baseline and I seen
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Dame. Dame didn't know who I was and I was like "yo what's up I'm Kanye."
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[Dame:] "Yo, you that kid, Kanye?"
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"You that kid that gave all them beats to Jay?
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Yo, this nigga got classics"
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[Dame:] "Jay got classics, G."
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You know I ain't talkin shit.
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I'm like "oh shit." And all this time I'm starstruck, man. I'm
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Still thinking 'bout, you know I'm picturing these niggaz on the show
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The Streets is Watching, I'm lookin, these were superstars in my
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Eyes. And they still are, you know. So, Jay came in and he spit all
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These songs like in one day, and in two days... I gotta bring up one
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Thing, you know, come back to the story, the day I did the 'Can't be
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Life' beat on track, I remember Lenny S, he had some Louis Vuitton
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Sneakers on, he think he fly. And Hiphop was there, I think Tata, John
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Minnelli, a bunch of people. I didn't know all these people at the
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Time they was in the room, and I said, "yo Jay I could rap." And I
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Spit this rap that said, uh "I'm killin y'all niggaz on that lyrical
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Shit. Mayonnaise colored Benz, I push miracle whips. " And I saw his
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Eyes light up when I said that line. But you know the West, the rap
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Was like real wack and shit, so that's all the response.
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He said "man that was tite."
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[Jay-Z:] "That, that was cool. That was hot."
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That was it. You know, I ain't get no deal then, hehe.
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Okay, fast forward.
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So, Blueprint, H to the Izzo, my first hit single. And I just
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Took that proudly, built relationships with people. My relationship
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With Kweli I think was one of the best ones to ever happen to my
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Career as a rapper. Because, you know, of course later he allowed me
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To go on tour with him. Man, I appre-- I love him for that. And at
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This time, you know I didn't have a deal, I had songs, and I had
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Relationships with all these A&R's, and they wanted beats from me, so
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They'd call me up, I'd play them some beats. "Gimme a beat that sound
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Like Jay-Z. " You know, they dick riders. Whatever. So I'll play them
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These post-Blueprint beats or whatever and then I'll play my shit. I'll
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Be like, "yo but I rap too." Hey, I guess they was lookin' at me crazy
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'cause you know, 'cause I ain't have a jersey on or whatever
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Everybody out there listen here. I played them 'Jesus Walks' and they
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Didn't sign me. You know what happened, it was some A&R's that fucked
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With me though, but then like the heads, it'd be somebody at the
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Company that'll say "naw." Like, Dave Lotti fucked with me, my
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Nigga Mel brought me to a bunch of labels. Jessica Rivera, man
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[Jessica:] "Man, you niggaz is stupid if y'all don't sign Kanye, for real."
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I'm not gonna say nothin to mess my promotion up
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"Y'all niggaz is stupid". Let's just say I didn't get my deal.
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The nigga that was behind me, I mean,
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He wasn't even a nigga, you know?
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The person who actually kicked everything off was Joe 3H from Capitol
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Records. He wanted to sign me really bad.
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[Joe:] "We gonna change the game, buddy."
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Dame was like, "yo you got a deal with Capitol,
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Okay man, just make sure it's not wack. "
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[Dame:] "you gotta make sure it's not wack."
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Then one day I just went ahead and played it, I wanted to
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Play some songs, 'cause you know Cam was in the room, Young Guru, and
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Dame was in the room. So I played... Actually it's a song that you'll
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Never hear, but maybe I might use it. So, it's called 'Wow. '
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"I go to Jacob with 25 thou, you go with 25 hundred, wow
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I got eleven plaques on my walls right now
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You got your first gold single, damn, nigga, wow. "
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Like the chorus went. Don't bite that chorus, I might still use it. So
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I play that song for him, and he's like "oh shit"
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[Dame:] "Oh shit it's not even wack."
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"I ain't gonna front, it's kinda hot."
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[Dame:] "it's actually kinda hot."
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Like they still weren't looking at me
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Like a rapper. And I'm sure Dame figured, 'like man. If he do a whole
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Album, if his raps is wack at least we can throw Cam on every song and
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Save the album, you know. So uh Dame took me into the office, and he's
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Like "yo man, we, we on a brick, we on a brick"
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[Dame:] "you don't wanna catch a brick"
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You gotta be under an umbrella, you'll get rained on.
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I told Hiphop and Hiphop was all, "oh, word?" Actually, even with
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That I was still about to take the deal with Capitol 'cause it was
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Already on the table and 'cause of my relationship with 3H. That, you
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Know, 'cause I told him I was gonna do it, and I'm a man of my word, I
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Was gonna roll with what I said I was gonna do. Then, you know, I'm
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Not gonna name no names, but people told me, "oh he's just a producer
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Rapper" and told 3H that told the heads of the Capitol, and right--
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The day I'm talking about, I planned out everything I was gonna do
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Man, I had picked out clothes, I already started booking studio
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Sessions, I started arranging my album, thinking of marketing schemes
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Man I was ready to go. And they had Mel call me, they said
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"yo... Capitol pulled on the deal"
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[Mel:] "Yo, Capitol pulled out on the deal."
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And, you know I told them that Rocafella was interested
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And I don't know if they thought that was just something I was saying
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To gas them up to try to push the price up or whatever. I went up... I
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Called G, I said, "man, you think we could still get that deal with Rocafella?"
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