No ID On The Makings Of Jay-Z’s 4:44 + Tells Stories About Kanye’s Beginnings

while New York and on the huge 87 have Ebro in the morning ladies and gentlemen I see bro in the morning beautiful our Styles Rosenberg and Chicago's home no ideal stop stop do it again the five-time Grammy nominated no high five five is it five how many Grammys do you have one I'm gonna tell you I pull out my clothes pull the mic a little bit closer you have won Grammy I got one Grammy physical I got a lot of songs that one got so a lot of people you know you don't get an actual trophy if your song gotta if you're a producer songwriter it's only certain categories you get the trophy so it's tougher for the producers and songwriters so you know for the thumb action of people but yeah so like so so the album we did got eight nominations then what job was this just for for for for for TSA got out of that I got for that I get a trophy for got it he could get eight and then then I'm up for producer of the year producer of the Year non-classical which is amazing and you're up against stereotypes Calvin errors stereotypes did Bruno Mars you know Greg Kurstin and Blake Mills was a cool guy I met him recently he came into some of the four for four sessions got it so um now the Grammy that you have one physical for is for what run this town run this town another jay-z record yeah now um this is no ID ladies and gentlemen you've probably seen produced by no ID on many things in hip-hop um before we get into your speculation of how many are actually gonna walk away wit and why right mm-hmm I want to talk about Chicago and your your beginnings cuz I don't I don't know Rosenberg you said you interviewed him how long ago the last time you talked to it maybe three or four years ago already yeah a few years past yeah and I'm sure you guys covered Chicago and talked about a lot with a common yeah yeah Wes yeah yeah so but I want to recover that right now I wanna I want to unpack that look okay recover those stories unpack that um you were a DJ first or producer first DJ DJ and what kind of music we playing house house music and you still love house music absolutely and origins own thing I really play about right yeah you told me that you like if I play I'm not playing on my records I won't play house where have you have you produced house records before yeah before I did hip-hop record it's just what I did that was my first introduced in the music business and it went so bad I was I was a DJ name at the DOE yeah okay okay DJ Dion anything I'm just deal yes Deana and how did you get getting no idea Wilson um so um early on one of my friends Twilight Tom was also with us from early on another producer of wheat we became a little crew and started producing common and wait Twilight Tom didn't he just work with the guerrillas absolutely he was just up here Willie in Chicago to an original house music also absolutely absolutely God shows me ham and Carmen but that was the core of that first album the can I borrow dollars now that was it yes it's us so one day matter of fact we were out here working on resurrection and he goes yo man you should be your name backwards there's no ID right yeah yeah you should be why not cuz name is Tony and literally both of like oh oh man that's that story what's the relationship for people cuz I we've had these conversations they actually make fun of me a lot because I'll talk about mantronix and I'll talk about so sonic force and I'll talk about the connection of hip hop and electronic music and house music on the US somebody who came up in house music in Chicago which I don't even think young black kids know that house music is original like black mute like that's black music like there's no other way around it absolutely but I don't think like now you say house music and yeah there's some black audiences like now I mess with dance and I don't mess with this and I don't mess with that yeah that's nice and that's like saying you know what's hip-hop what you know it just changes once it gets out of the small originators hands it's they give it different names is he'll be y'all kind of subgenres different expressions others bigger than the others but you know that was the I didn't have a choice that was the music in the city period and it really was you know fun fact is it was a DJ I hear man chilli cute mm-hmm that started doing a radio show out there that gave our other friend Derek who was kamas manager there Dudley Derek Dudley we just talked about this week ago the first sb 1209 I was like oh okay that's my house but let's see yeah let's see what this does and so what's the relationship between house and hip-hop like is it just club music is that the tribulation well I could say what it is for me it's the UM the fact that we used to make these edits of a song to make the parts we like extend it the loop-the-loop what is yeah yeah so that's kind of where I got my style from cuz I used to edit these records up and find these good parts I don't care what those voices in or whatever just this part feel did it I'm extending this part out and play it and then that's my edit and then you go play and people start want to come hear you cuz you got good at it so good taste so that's really what my sampling style really is mmm it's really that and then once I came out to New York and I made the beat nuts and fake then I start okay jazz music oh this or that you know then I'll just took you then start chopping other things on here yeah how did you and Connie how did the kanye west relationship happen um that was that was my mom and his mom really know each other yeah my mom's a teacher as my was a teacher so you know she comes on like hey can you help Frank so crazy knowing how much older they are you older than Kanye yeah yeah so he's like 14 when that happened yeah and it's just it's just all over the place he's an annoying 14 year old kid absolutely he was rapping at the time when he wanted to produce at that time he was rapping okay he just wanted to make it as a in music so he had his demos he's planning anybody's making like beats on this little computer you know really know what the sampling is about or whatever so I just was just sent him on missions like look man is this how you sample go go do that come back and he just kept coming back and I understand running out of mission the cinema really this that's the truth I wasn't thinking like this is about to be Kanye West and I'm gonna mentor him and make it's a kid it's a favor for your mind he actually did the job let's see what happen was he was he very confident even at that age a hundred percent he knew he'd make it a hundred percent it couldn't there was no other version of the story I mean that you know there's a there's a I remember one time he we we brought him out to meet with Columbia and they wanted to design and this is a little later in equation and I mean a guy Peter King Peter King was an A&R they signed common at relativity bye-bye-bye we grabbed my we demand as we bring it in and the short version is the meaning just goes bad cuz Kanye was Kanye in cuz he was in full mold right and I remember coming home and I was like you know what I you know what I don't I don't think I should manage you you should do your own day I'm help you but I don't not I got this probably don't fit me and how did he fake it that's the one time I saw him look like weight him and I came to the meaning a limo I left in my taxi what am I gonna do now and but that was that was fuel if you know him that was and for you it was just you didn't want to frankly be in the position of being like I brought a guy in and he's kind of acting crazy and I know it's not that is i'm i i've been doing music 26 years cuz i just want everything to be alright you know i'm i'm a pass on things this don't drive me crazy or not fit my personality like I really just I didn't think I'd live a comfortable life beginning that role and I felt like if I didn't have that passion to do that somebody else will I die passion and do that that I heard him you know I just looked at it that way you know I know I just got a different outlet on August you know when you help somebody win they don't matter what you get from them or what position you play if you really help somebody it's a win for you in some shape form or fashion as seeing saw you know we just benefited each other we and you know it's times when he's told me like man I'm glad we didn't you know you never did anything wrong to me so there was no business between us to tarnish relationships strain them and then it's just good man I just get live good life when always Dion know I always used to get confused so you'd be like hey its Dianna be like Dianna who what are you and you know you also have been this person in this business as long as I've known you that's just always um done exactly what you were just talking about right like artists come to you to get their sound right to find their sound like you've become this almost like a guru in some regard of like you know working with artists um over the years the resume is long but more recently you went in and became an executive at a label which was new for you right when you started with Def Jam the first time inside an executive how was that experience for you because that was something I think you had told me before that he was like now I'm never going inside and then the climate was right he felt no and that wasn't it I to be honest um sometimes as a creative crazy something and then you look at who you're talking to and you go like wow why am I talking to you about what am i what I'm doing and I at some point I just got fed up and like I was right I can't talk to a lot of these people I gotta just go in there and be a person people can talk to or you know about the music like man I gotta I gotta get past this firewall man my internet too slow right now ain't making the right mmm speed a man with I had to break down this firewall let me get a hair and then you ended up working with obviously we're all speak Shawn logic and helping all of them create the best music they could possibly create and I mean you took you brought a logical uh you brought him a long way to where we are today with this Grammy nomination for that record absolutely absolutely alright yeah and you know I'm always careful how I worded now you know because I like letting people get they credit so he definitely grew like the minute our first session I went in with him I was like are you a producer you don't need me to produce I'm just gonna produce the fact that you produce and kind of show you what to do because I knew he had all these thoughts in his mind and I knew one thing is or no more study what I do it's not that I'm becoming a guru I'm actually just learning we're producing really is cuz hip-hop and Technology or confuse what producing is they're people think beat makers are users absolutely so it's just getting deeper into what that really means which is just like figuring out what what a person is inside how to score that how to put them in the right situations and make people go oh I like that for what it is uniquely specifically and that that's um that comes that came over time but that also came from honestly studying a lot of what Quincy Jones says you know because if you go and look back at that you know that that catalog he did before Mike and then what he did with Mike and after Mike you know there are no signs or conversations about him bringing beats to people or music ideas you know it's just a whole nother philosophy of what the value he brought to that music that just goes tens and twenties and thirty millions of Records this is deeper didn't who made the drum period right who even made the basin III mean I studied it far and I'm like did he ever make a original piece of music and ever bring it to anybody you know not that he didn't make it or that he can't or that he can't he absolutely in scenarios did it but that wasn't what he did right that's not why we look at him up there you know it's something else and so I just start to read his books and you know really I like studying people from a far more than the relationships get a little bright and like the Sun too much in your eyes and I just started learning and and I really recognized that you know he did a lot of that great work in his forties so when I hit my forties I was like alright what did you do and I started to study it and then I just start to do it and put it in action and now you know from Canterbury dollars are now I mean my whole perspective is not anywhere near the same you know but my taste is still the same but I will hope I got better do you have a favorite um album that you produced it may not be the most popular may not be the most popular artist but maybe well Monica you know why that's a trick question is because that I produced on or produced yeah cuz can I borrow is your album monotone tOA's on a block you guys proves together yeah I did most of resurrection and there's other you know some other albums that I kind of because producer album is a different thing man that's not by having three four cuts on a great album it's easy like you did before 44 yes that's the difficult process because now he's 44 you did the entire yeah thing yes so wait you're are you credited with producing every song you're the album producer just it's one of the same as kiss yeah Jay got some Co production for some samples he gave me but you know even deeper that's like cheaper than what that was there was just no two people sitting down really exchange their visions and you know he not tapping pads but he's sharing his thoughts which if you go back Michael Jackson got co-production on records yeah you know it's just but overall you know when you learn a different role and that's what I mean like some of them other records that I like that I was a part of I played a different role right you know and you know especially when we working with like artists producers I could I hear something like artist producer that vs. producers just at some point I just realized that's two different things because artists producers get to express anything they want express producers have to have an artist's agree with what they want to express so you never it's harder to express everything and I just was talking about this with my friend a pop a couple days ago like oh yeah that's why I did I just put awesome beats out because it wasn't enough artists buying beats for him to get all of that out but we got to hear it you know Andy has any of these beats so many of his beats CDs or beat that you don't even know what rapper could have handled that beat it's just an expression period period well did you think when you made this did you first of all what came first this beat or the raps and did you know how iconic this was that beat came first but he may have had a general idea that concept that him to be honest him and Tom why not Twilight told you know that happens sometimes that happened with four four four like I kind of knew somewhere back in there he had a concept of a song and I just was musically nudging him like poking them in the cell you got it you got to tell us about story of OJ cuz that's the most important record on the album I believe I know people look 444 and from a personal standpoint I like Marcy me there's a few things I really listen I doesn't mean like I just mean socially and culturally like you know story of OJ taps into something right now that was so important I thought yeah so real quick for for for jay-z and you sit down he calls you and says I want to do this album I have an idea how did know yeah I could it's this is the real thing he gave me a few years ago say I got an idea for an album I go see him he tells me the concept and it's like I heard the concept when I was like I know where he's gone he may not have said it fully and I don't think at that time I and like I'm still in that I'm studying Quincy Jones I'm about to get better place not I got a stack of beats over here yeah let's do this I'm let's get to the money that's whatever so either it was a couple years I just kept telling them now had nothing he's like what you mean you don't have nothing I'm like I don't have anything I'm he's like what you working on like getting better that's what I'm working on it was a running joke so it was some you know false starts in there but really what happened is he hit me in was I yo I need you to help me with this big mincer project and Bonnie and I kind of found a groove and I was like yo but I got something now I got something he's after two years you're like yeah yeah now for real like okay I meet you you know and the way I had it right when I sat with him and I just probably ran off fifty and then we see where all fifty eight beat ideas song it cuz I way I made music now I just kind of create a sketch on the spot click and um you know that the speed of it is actually an important way that I do cuz you know people get bogged down with ideas it's it's just a slow process and every idea could be a little off of the speak if you're on the drums could have been wrong but if it take you two days to come back people long you know it's too much thumbing their doing life to be thinking about coming back to a beat you know people just dumb dumb dumb so um I I incorporate that and I trying overload people and and catch him in the place so he's like man that was too much don't don't move I'm ready and then I just got aggressive on them and I just started hitting them with five every more than like you ain't man I'm working I'm still going your dad and then I made the the killer OJ I mean kill jay-z be yeah and then he goes like hold on I'm calling guru come by the house and then I go okay so it really was never like he sat down and said we doing a house mm-hmm we never even said we're doing an album ever that was never even a concept people were sending beats everything but again I think I was working at a high rate I made a lot of pieces of music and you understood where you thought he wanted to go yes cuz you had that preliminary combo yes right so then I had the cheat code of just sitting there and talking every day so now back to getting on with you chuckling I was just Oh Jay that was us just sitting around having conversations and you know the the unique thing about working with him to me is that I I just said oh you know what if it didn't happen he's not gonna say he's not gonna like come up with today's agenda suitcases in the Sentra he's dying if that didn't happen he's not gonna say so you can't even really like he's a true little real story yeah what's real fact now that boxes it all in now you got to be like so what happened hey telling some stuff what's going on how you thinking what you're feeling and then you gotta like talk it out but he's so smart all the conversations he's like already got the information so then at that point I was like okay it just takes I haven't bring Emory around let's talk about the old day this man yeah yeah what's a guru talk and then all those songs that start happening so I remember the day we were just talking and he had given me the full woman sample because I was doing this technique with the beats and he was a man she's doing with these I was like man just make a playlist man just make a playlist see he's like cool what stuff he's feeling that he'd like this what I'm playing a house I'm like give me that thus comes the co-production ok this is the score of your house all right this should be easy you love this music you play it all the time it's just like when the parents play the music and then you go like ok I like it all right cool so and it's true like a few times I go to his house he's playing this playlist here I'm like hey man make it new one no I like this one but um that's when I and then and then I kind of know how to shift I figure out a way to I chop words up in samples and kind of make it say what I want to make it say right cuz the Nina Simone record that you use for story of OJ you know definitely is on topic with yeah the the Sam every sample if I mostly are on topic with the songs that it feels like all right on 444 and mine am I saying that right I mean in general yeah I wanna think about had thinking about it I want to say yes family feud is the Clark Sisters right which is a family of girl singers for that Young's and so I was like okay I see and like that was the first thing I thought I was like okay this Nina Simone record is about different women right with different complexions and dealing with different things so there's a race culture convo in the original sample right you know I mean so I don't know just I thought that was a part of the idea maybe it wasn't it man to be honest it moves so fast it wasn't it wasn't as contrived as we discuss it now it was more like you know hook this up and me being I always sent a jobs type mood I'm like five minutes late I might go alright I got it he like come on man you ain't got and I'm like you know and right here they say my skin is black my skin is yellow you know how we and then before I know it he got the lines to the chorus like I can't even get the yeah cuz that's how good he is yeah it's really kind of oh you got to do is just like kind of toss the ball and he just goes do something so did you were you surprised at the level of accolades and like to do you think story of OJ we get nominated for a Grammy I don't I don't think like that so I never had those direct dogs he had like one that was the second song we did and he was like all right we going somewhere not that right that's the pillar oh wow so even the record like 444 the first song y'all did was daddy or beat he liked that caught his attention was killed jay-z yes that's the first record on the album yeah story oj is the second right and that's the second ring was legacy and that's one of the last ones do yeah so he immediately was like 1 to 10 all right now let's now still it in yeah it might have been one to seven cuz he went to do seven songs at first he's our old needs to form or whatever and I'm going to hit you with that God number oh yeah yeah yeah yeah and then then some dense things just started happening right so I had four four four wasn't into like the middle of the project that was never that wasn't a thing like if you really go look at the DNA to have record it's not it's this deep it's a deeper expression in that relationship oh for sure for sure matter of fact we were trying to box it into that being the only song that kind of touches the relationship and it spilled no no what happened is when it got to the end he was like it gotta be some resolution of this stuff you just can't and wit I'm never but did it surprise you like how personal it was absolutely and there was no you know and then and that's where you sitting there he was recording he was like Yoshi drop one dude one thug tear I tried now I try not to tell every all that stuff because I like for him to be able to say that's why I don't do X I'm trying to get no idea up here for a long time but obviously whole fan tour is his project he has done interviews he doesn't do a lot of interviews yeah so no idea wasn't coming up here until every story every you know yeah so when I knew he had a thought of one of those type of Records I went and did the beat and it's a real story I put the beat on and I just let that I was like what's up he's like what you mean was sucked I was like what's up she's gonna do he's like I I'm going home and he goes home and then he texts me at 4:44 in the morning all right I got it now I real story I didn't we didn't pay attention to that time at all that that was a after fact not to mention the song is 12 minutes and 44 seconds we didn't pay attention that this is how the album got named and he and then guru goes over there super early so I'm just sitting in my studio and then guru just comes in and it's all like you know we we do all this stuff theatrical on purpose is just fun you know he just comes in and looks at me like I just push play just looks at me and I'm like and I I just paused for I don't know minutes because it's you know it's I didn't expect it as much as I push you know I expect there to be a line that I thought I couldn't push him you know it so when it came back exactly the way I would have envisioned it to be I was kind of shocked and to be honest I just kind of left the studio call my wife before a walk down the street gave you know so this is something we got something here hey I appreciate you know oh it hit you on that level yeah not that I did anything but just hey you know what is some blessings and I'm gonna take take time right now and just walk away from this one minute because that was well you know real you know as everybody debates what is gonna get rap album of the year before you even get to help me to hear right and and what that's gonna be you know one of the conversations I think we had the other day on the air about 444 cuz we all love damn Kendrick put together a phenomenal I've had a lot of people think he's gonna walk away best rap album right and whether or not you like me goes or understanding music or like them or whatever sonically they are unlike anything else in popular music and and rap you know I mean they created their own sound and I think that needs to be in some ways saluted right um Tyler also right like we should be celebrating that each and every album we are living in a time of hip-hop where each and every album in the rap category is sonically very different yes and that should be celebrate I think we should celebrate as a culture but we're also living in a time where we literally have a living legend in a successful relationship mm-hmm with three beautiful children absolutely an entrepreneur and he owns his own streaming platform yeah you're saying yeah it's like after those months I was eight I got step up my life game don't we all yeah cuz I'm to add on to that you know it was a moment in the album where he was like man you like a good person man now we didn't known each other forever way too long like the I mean at first the first time I came around was volume 1 mm and he was like but I didn't know you was nice because you know you're just kind of walking the room half they say what I like but that's my Chicago nature like we don't win on intrude in people's space we got to be cool sure we cool with people before we engage you know it's like a a bad street culture thing we got like we just not it's like what's up until you invite me in then it's like aw what's up all right cool so he said man I'm like you are too man he's like now you know man and you know dude I just got to see a human being that I was like oh man you like a good guy and so that was like multiplying and then I'm like wait a minute you like my on your music you know while we're all talking about this battle for the Indies you like been indie the whole time you only miss you on the streaming platform you own a sports agency what am i doing well hold on something I got I got work to do so on that level man cuz I think the competitive nature hip-hop won't allow us to really acknowledge all that stuff yet I think that's why base it's like you gotta stop him this is my I think for for for either deserves album of the year or or rap album of the year because we are watching a 40 how did it is home now 48 a 48 year old black man and a successful relationship telling the most in-depth story of his life in hip-hop we have never seen this before mm-hmm and I mean I hope we see it again but this has set a new mark for the culture it has now I tell you my opinion and this is just my opinion because I'm I'm so hip hop is my core that I just don't even think about that I don't think what that wins that the Grammys defines what it is we already did it it's there right it won't ever the trophy doesn't there mark me said the Grammy doesn't make it matter yes yes that's fact - you know what I mean and it'll be there forever the only thing that matters the only that really matters the Grammys this year is with the number of rap albums nominated for album of the year I think it'll be cool for one of the rap albums to win in that category but I don't think for home and you this really is that necessary a win yeah I just wanted I just wanted to be documented yeah that to be documented that we have hit a new mark we have documented you feel like documented not the success of it to me was that was its it like now we have now hope is officially capable of doing what people like Bruce Springsteen do and drop a Stevie Wonder you drop classics throughout your life and not only that it what I'm saying is listen I'm excited to be nominated as much as people you know and I've worked on projects that didn't get nominated I thought were you know eight always our bridge didn't get a lot of nominations if any it might got one you know I don't even know you worked on it always yeah you know AOH the heartbreaks single-handedly change the ways rappers make music right now yeah but I mean I did multiple records on there yeah so this is what I mean I we didn't get you know that's what I'm obligated was I by the way you played I used to love it that's a time that came out it wasn't like I didn't even it was later somewhere like yo man that was classic your might what okay and it in time showed it was a class so because I've been through that I'm like man this is a year one for this one that's a great way of looking at it yeah like are we not only with it's going it's it's going into the psyche of humanity right now mm-hmm if the fruit of that doesn't even show up that's the win for the record is that it's gonna go along it's not even on Spotify what about when they figure that out and put it on Spotify it's a long tail now this extreme world it's it means it's deep it's layers you could keep going and going and going and you know I kept I kept referencing like what's going on we was working I kept saying cuz we are getting every enemy every like man all right let's go for I'll be like nah man let's not put sexual healing on what's going on I know radio I know the club but let's just do this one then we got it you already got the catalog you won you ran you won five times like ten times or whatever I don't know but this one let's just this is that was an actual conversation though about like should we drop a single on this they're just one to like hit the people with and you were like we don't need that here yeah I was like the kid look at certain albums that are standouts in people catalogs they not really the ones and not a fact I kept saying I Alchemist a measure by the worst song not the best song like the bad songs make an album not classy you have the most amazing records on a record and you've got two bad records midnight and I ain't classic though because of an industry that is a combo tonight cool yeah like there's one's a girl I like it but not as much the other ones and then there's ones where it's like skip I never want that one to play and that hurts yes you know so I was it was a different perspective I was like man you've got a big there's nobody that only impress nobody no more I don't even mean that it's just another one for you but to take this stance mean something so back to the Grammy then the other part I think we we toy with this concept of who who the Grammy Committee is and whether they should really be choosing you know the 14,000 members and yeah but I you know in my mind those are our peers yeah there are they're engineers notions so when when we win lose or draw that's what the people said I I you know I just make music trying to reach people so when it reaches people is good and if it don't reach you immediately that's cool I know what I'm intending I know he's intending and sometimes you could win more when you just don't you know there's so many statistics that we put into this win and I'm lying and that's not where I'm from again we'd start off with where I'm from them from playing house music in a club was just 2,000 people and if I play the wrong record they get off the floor so and by the way it's not like it's not like even with logic logic had his audience just crushing it meanwhile I talked to people at Def Jam when definitely and I went to a show was the first show that Def Jam was at and they were looking at the crowd and they were like oh my god I didn't even know we had this so it's not like you got something when people when you were messing with logic it's not what the industry knew yet how ill he was know I'm gonna tell you that's what did it for me one of my one of my young guys named Noah Preston that I was kind of I grabbed him as a scout and raised him up you know is that no way that works engineers no no no he's an hour Def Jam guy but he was like a young kid and I'm like nah he smart i'ma show on because I like reproducing and bringing new people in and so he brought logic to me in the first I was like yes cool you know he's like not sure really look at this you can that's good but you know in my mind I'm thinking is he mm is he you know just the surface starts you think out the gate and then I go I'm gonna go to show I'm gonna see and when I saw the show I was like do the deal right now and then after I saw the show and Madam I was like don't never talk about a single just put the records out let the man do it either he'll find a single at some point in his life it'll make it he don't need it all he need to do is just keep going he didn't do it that's it he got the court fan base he's gonna grow he's gonna figure it out he's gonna mature he's smart and but more importantly it's going back to me knowing how to produce knives like you I know how to score people's lives now so I'm looking at who he is and I'm like now I don't mess that up that's that is that is what it's supposed to be in enhance it make it better single talk is pressure like I don't I go back and listen to certain classic albums and I hit a single I know boo man I know what I know why you did that right I don't want to save some songs but we crack jokes like it's starting albums I'm like but that one why what we should do about that I think that's why you became the you went inside the label is what you're said - so the about wanted to have sales people like get out of the way I mean this goes across from a rap I was the person that was like I don't care that Alessia Cara don't got no manager at the time or no demo she's good oh that hear record that's the one put that out on soundcloud watch it stop worrying about it all I think the tempo today that not who cares do it connect it ain't the tempo what label talk that song how's it going to get playing house that's it all right somebody's gonna provide I know where people don't play Jay Carter out man on the plane and on that long car ride when they really want to think about how I'm sure you're all social media a little bit Alma how much you pay attention was getting on that a little bit a little bit um but I'm sure you've seen the headlines of whether it was 57 Williams up here saying our kids don't listen to the jay-z album or they're sort of that how does you just said people go I know where people don't listen to jay-z's album at yeah right um how do you what's your rebuttal to that or how do you even process that if you see something like that I mean that just perspective if you when he explained this perspective I got his perspective but everybody's it's art when you create art it's different purposes you know every artist you know I got this a real I should trademark it I got a real salient when I worked go work with people I should go alright we artist do you want to paint a Picasso or a stop sign let's determine this in the gate and I'm gonna define it Picasso is the pain that people may not know for years how valuable it is it's limited amounts of them they not only special people really embrace it and have it and stop signs on every corner of the world very important and we know what they look like everyone says we know the color we know that one even in another country we see it and go stop I need to stop here so that's the hit and that's the art so I don't I'm not in really in the stop signs if you want to make stop signs you should just go look at stop signs and makeup and I'll cheer you on but I'm in the I'm in there Picasso's I'm gonna art that's the only thing that ever worked for me in my career so I know what I do and I and I know how to look at people know what they do and then just kind of help people get to what they want to get to so I don't why did I say that what was the thing that's why you got into labels and I'm the guy that's like where's the artist you know that's cool all the research all the numbers all of that's cool and you know what everybody goes yeah yeah I got this many that and that many this and I cool if that's what you doing it for yeah that's not what I'm looking for that's not when when the book is closed on me I just want the pages to look like I feel oh okay oh I get it I see where I get it but nobody even know and I went and did two stop signs by the way that's why I know I went to Atlanta and worked with Jermaine did the buyout and all kind of record still was I was like okay that's what that is yes I know how did I get it but I went down there and learned how to not think about it from a Picasso perspective which helped me be do Brecht be involved where he's like heartless and stuff like that that I call like two-handed writing to hand like this it's a Picasso stop sign yeah you know brought the worlds together yeah and so I know how to do that which by the way I think Kanye is great at right that's one of his gifts is that he loves merging them but you know I love I love pure Picasso's sometimes like I don't even want to know I wanted to be distinctly against the grain sometimes you know a lot of times I want to go I had no radio and no cup now but but you like it though right but it's different right and make you and I used to tell Jay before we did since I'm here here certain beats in here be like and why are you gonna give me that and I'll be like I'm trying to irritate you I want to make you feel like why are you giving this to somebody else when you know what I would do which was all you know I mean I don't know rolling to get to this to get to this to this yeah I was trolling before I was on the internet already here's an original troll Jay talks he's absolutely like he takes we let you go um I think it was a couple of was it a couple months Ebro that we interviewed sister Nancy before we heard well the four four four album and the tracks right we interviewed or any we have you know honey some that comp and she had never got she had never gotten paid just an incredible story how she recorded that record when she was sixteen and didn't see money from it to like years years later just like recently right yeah last few years she started getting paid off a bomb bomb from sister Nancy now absolutely so how did that come together and and did you guys was it was sister Nancy in studio with you guys at any point or how did that come about that was just the part of the thing that I got from the Quincy thing was just like he used to say it's 10% inspiration 90% perspiration and I started looking at all because you say some of our kids so I'm gonna tie this up like you know when we talk about the kids I I really I wanna know what age are the kids when people bring them up know yeah when we talking about the kids what's the kid like talking about what the kids like it so which age is the kid I think that's like a 16 to 22 or someone before I don't know yeah did a lot of these people were talking about dating that they older than that when we started oh the people having the conversation that people having a conversation artists that we talk about they're trying to stay young they're fighting to stadium be clear so so I got this thing where I you know I want to help us examine that in the sense of you know hip-hop is one of the only things where we say youth is the truth the only thing that matters listen to the kids bro Kanye my kid yeah you know I'm just saying like in no other form of life do adults go I gotta go see what my kids said so I make a decision on this purchase or what I'm gonna wear today what do the kids say you know it's so it's kind of what I and let me clarify what I'm saying it's kind of pimpish the whole thing is there like a pimpish thing like man let's figure out what these kids think Oh cuz they're like and make some money off of them their minds aren't yeah able to make their own so whatever they saying let's just feed them that and we'll get some numbers oh so they popping pills in Gucci Gangu jacuzzi let's pump more of this and a life like sweets and fast food so versus so you know when people like man that whole Valens adult and I was like I'm so smart is adult or introspective is adult or you know because I grew up in the air when I was a kid people doing Africa's and knowledge itself and our kind of thing so I never was like you know that's adult to pop your adult no he never he got 225 right but it was just good not even that stuff they were saying baby nice partying with young guys you know I said Brenda's got a baby was two adult yes yeah nas was what 18 yeah I don't you know that portion and then I want to make sure I too bad cuz your question was I was talking about sister Nancy so since there's Nancy so I just looked at the young producers and I was like man they just out working me it's not really like they just have been working a really fast pace and I was like when she said 90% perspiration so I was like then we get on my beat treadmill and I was like I'm gonna make 100 beats and then I went and there was 200 it was like and for four months it was 500 and that system nasty idea was just one in the batch and when it come down to I felt like oh that's like a Picasso with some stop sign elements so the whole time I was like we got to do that one no we got to do that one and the connection with her came when we had the concept to go press 2:45 in Jamaica I still don't have one by the way do you know it's been a hard hurtful I know they all say every guru says he has he just can't hasn't gotten to the the box that they're in it's gonna be a minute to get mine all right so I'm gonna die if I don't get one but continue uh he's not forty-five collector with you I'm there now - I don't know how I just jumped in the game that's cool you're in the game in a game man oh so we gotta talk but I but I play house music on the 4500 word yes say I got my own angle it's that and that's by the way it's that's in its own collection situation - yeah did you boxes on the way oh yeah okay well deficit I'm I'm in it when you go and you go in I'm going in I stayed outside okay but um so I didn't go because I'm a family man and they said it was secret and Jamaica so I didn't go but they flew down and sister Nancy was there and I just got the story of everything that she said everything she went through and and guru being guru and true guru fashion puts in the bull four chords a yo man I got a CD you know so some of that was like just because it's just an ass yeah I you can't pass that up I mean in Jamaica at Bob studio you know no I was it was too good I I hate that I missed it I hate that I missed it but um you know it's just the same old story again like the business is so crooked you know that's why I wanted to be an executive that's like man we make this art this is this is our natural resource we don't have land there's no oil in the land there's no you know we got this art and to allow it to just be continuously misuse exploited misdirected you know I could not compensate yeah man I can't I take the bullet sitting in the label and I gonna delay man because man somebody gonna need me somebody special is wrong I learned my lesson early and it's a blessing my mother introduced me to this kid he told me he was when we would not Colombia meeting he told aina haina I'm gonna be the next Michael Jackson I'll get good in my head and one day I saw him on the Grammys would jacket doing stronger a specific jacket and Michael Jackson called him I said where'd you get that jacket and I was like Kanye West so anything can happen anything can happen I don't know who I'm meeting every single day I don't know what's going on but I know imma help some people and I'm gonna keep adding some pages to this book and today is about my hair cuz it's 5 nominations and you know I'm happy and it could be zero wins 5 wins I don't matter I'm not dancing it's all the way I stopped dancing in the end zone until the careers Oh diet I was gonna score put the bar down and go back run another play well his name's no idea if you're watching this and you didn't do your research on who he is and why he's important and um you know why we having them up here today hopefully this gave something I just thought it would be you know your discography and what you've represented in hip hop and maintaining culture and kind of being that glue and you know the people clearly that you've helped I thought that was an important thing to share especially with Grammys being back in New York City which is birthplace of hip hop and it's the 60th anniversary and the number of hip hop albums that are nominated for album of the year I kind of feel like the stars have aligned in a way Thank You Man thank you making time for us thank you go give it up no idea

Channel: HOT 97

Views: 371,199

Keywords: NY, eitm, video, hip-hop, US, rap, r&b, hip hop, hot97, HOT97.com, United States, New York, music, hot97app

Id: zcDWPdMMx0g

Length: 57min 21sec (3441 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 26 2018