‘Kanye West in 2002’  You Had To Be There - video Dailymotion

Feelings Drama

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00:00I'm going to do the MTV Vizzle, Fizzle, Fizzle, Manizzle.

00:07So tell me a little bit about your transition from Chicago to New York.

00:13Well, for a long time people were telling me, man, if you go out to New York, you could

00:17really get your music on, you could really kill the game out there.

00:21But you know, you got your family out there, I got my girl out there, I have my group out

00:24there.

00:25I had a responsibility to the city to stay there and help try to make it blow.

00:31But then it's like, it was straw after straw, until the straw broke the camel's back, I had

00:37two artists.

00:38One artist ended up leaving me, getting signed, and didn't get any beats from me.

00:42Then I had another artist and I signed him to my company, and then he ended up leaving.

00:46And when he was telling me he was leaving, my landlord came upstairs and was like, you

00:51have too much traffic in your house, you're evicted.

00:54And I was like, man, at that point, if I wasn't ready to leave by then, so I really thank

01:00God.

01:01That's another one of the situations where I knew that it was a light at the end.

01:05Automatically when that happened, I said, oh, I see what's happening.

01:08God don't want me to be here no more.

01:10So I grabbed all my stuff up, just threw it in a U-Haul.

01:14I didn't even tell my landlord I was leaving, because he had been on some nitpicking, probably

01:18would try to take my whole security deposit and all that.

01:21And I just drove to New York.

01:23I hadn't even seen my apartment.

01:25I ended up driving.

01:26I got an apartment in Newark.

01:27So you know if I went to Newark, I definitely hadn't seen where I was moving.

01:30And earlier, like two months before that, I was in a car accident where my expedition

01:36had flipped over three times.

01:39And like, you know, I guess it was meant for me to be here or something, for me to walk

01:44away from that.

01:45So that was a blessing.

01:46So I was out here.

01:47I didn't have a car.

01:48I'd just take the New Jersey Transit, and I'd pack up all my stuff, pack up all my

01:53dats, and put them in a bag, and just walk over here to Baseline.

01:58And that was the key right there, being able to walk up in the Baseline and play these rappers

02:03these beats.

02:04I remember it was Beanie Siegel's birthday, and I came and I played a bunch of like soul

02:08beats.

02:09Like we have soul beats here and there, but I had a bunch that I was building up.

02:13Like, just like from the success of Can Be Life, I was like I need to make some more

02:18stuff in this vein right here.

02:21So I'm playing Beanie some beats, and he get the smile, I'm like, yeah, it's hot, you

02:26know what I'm saying?

02:27But he had to go somewhere.

02:28I don't know, he was going somewhere for his birthday.

02:29So then Hov came in.

02:30I remember he had a Gucci hat on, like the Fisherman joint, and hip hop, my manager, who

02:37definitely saved my life, was like, yo, play that one beat for Hov, and it came on.

02:44He was listening to it like, ooh, it's crazy right here.

02:49Then he got to the chorus, and the chorus is like, ain't no love in the heart of the city.

02:54He was like, oh, oh, they doing his face like that.

02:59Then he's like, oh, play the next beat.

03:01Play the next beat.

03:02I'll play another beat.

03:03He was listening to it like, yo, man, you a soulful dude, and everything that Hov is saying

03:08is like in stone.

03:09I will never forget none of these words, because I'm off the train, I'm from Chicago,

03:14I got $10 in my pocket right now, and I'm just having the opportunity to play these beats.

03:19So I'm, you know what I'm saying, I've had different so-called hit records and everything

03:23up to that point.

03:24But at this point, it's like, I'm just, this is like the moment of truth for me right

03:29here.

03:30So now I play another beat.

03:31Then I play another beat.

03:32Then I play this one beat, and it was like, never, never, never, never change.

03:37I never change.

03:39Yo, he took his hat down, he's like, oh.

03:44I was like, oh, maybe you like them.

03:45Maybe you hold my body's beat.

03:48So he was like, yo, put the joints on CD.

03:52Then he left out, right?

03:54I was like, OK, I'm putting these joints on CD.

03:56We'll see what happened.

03:57So then two weeks later, the blueprint was finished, right?

04:01So basically at that point, everything started rolling.

04:05Everybody's like, yo, man, I heard you had half of the blueprint album.

04:08I heard you did half of Jay-Z's album.

04:10I couldn't even believe in myself at the point when it was happening.

04:13Then I started connecting.

04:14I knew my people did prayers.

04:16I knew just different people.

04:18And my guy, my dog, 88 Keys, one night said he's having a rapper come up here.

04:24And just to play him some beats, he had to play.

04:26So dude walks through the door and is most deaf.

04:29So I'm like, oh.

04:30So I didn't have no beats on me at that time.

04:33I think I was trying to rap for him.

04:34He's like, yeah, whatever.

04:35Whatever.

04:36I was trying to say a rap over a beat because I'm like, I want most deaf to know I can rap.

04:40You know what I'm saying?

04:41And then it was trying to real, real weak over the beat I was rapping it over.

04:44I was like, man, I should have picked a better rap.

04:46Because when you meet a rapper, I was in the same shoes that somebody that walk up to me now,

04:50or walk up to any of these rappers.

04:52Well, you got one opportunity to say your best rap that you think is going to impress

04:56this specific rapper the most.

04:58You know what I'm saying?

04:59And that didn't work.

05:01You know what I'm saying?

05:02Whatever I was spitting.

05:03But then he's like, yo, you got beats.

05:04I'm like, yo, man, I'll play you beats.

05:05And I was telling him about the Takeover because he got Jack Johnson.

05:07So he was really into rock stuff.

05:09I was like, I got some more stuff like that.

05:10I ain't had nothing else like that.

05:12You know what I'm saying?

05:13Well, I went and made some more stuff.

05:14So then I think maybe a week later I played some beats for most, a bunch of joints that I had

05:20that was in that vein.

05:21You know what I'm saying?

05:22Of stuff that I thought he liked.

05:23Next thing you know, Mos Def got five beats.

05:26You know what I'm saying?

05:27So then I go to the studio to play Mos some beats one day and he wasn't there.

05:33And this dude was in the hallway.

05:34He was like, yo, you here for Mos?

05:36I looked up.

05:37It was Kweli.

05:38He's like, yo, man, what's up?

05:41You Kanye West?

05:42I was like, yeah, dawg.

05:44He's like, yo, you can play me some beats?

05:46I'm like, well, I had a CD here for Mos.

05:49He's like, yo, man, come and just play these beats right quick, dawg.

05:52So I walked in.

05:54I played some beats.

05:56Now I got Kweli's first single.

05:59I got three joints on this album.

06:01You know what I'm saying?

06:02So it was happening like I felt like God was just walking me.

06:05God kicked me in the ass to get out of the shot.

06:08God put me in situations where it wasn't like I was going out like, yo, let me try to meet

06:12these artists.

06:13Like I wasn't even thinking about who I was.

06:14All the time, really, I was just thinking about how I was going to get my record deal.

06:17You know what I'm saying?

06:18So it just so happened that he was putting me in situations where I was able to eat and

06:22able to build these relationships because I feel like Mos helped me get my record deal.

06:26Like I did a song with him, which is my first single, and it's a two-word joint.

06:31That's crazy.

06:32It's me, him, and Freeway.

06:33And I had a bunch of crazy songs for it.

06:36But when Dame heard that, he was like, yo.

06:38I remember when I first heard, because I was supposed to go to a bunch of different labels,

06:42man.

06:43Like it got to the point after Blueprint, a bunch of labels wanted me.

06:46You know what I'm saying?

06:47And The Rock, it always never seemed like I could be at The Rock because of my subject

06:52matter and everything.

06:53And he's not in the same exact vein as the rappers that y'all used to hear.

06:57But now we expanded.

06:58You know what I'm saying?

07:00And I expanded the music I was doing because I was doing very creative stuff.

07:06But then I'd be giving Hov and Bleak and Benny all these gutter beats that people really

07:12like.

07:13So it's like, why not just rap over the beats that people like?

07:17You know what I'm saying?

07:18And still say what I'm talking about.

07:19So one day I'm playing this stuff.

07:22I just wanted to play some songs of a bass line and Cam was in the studio just to see,

07:27like, man, is my stuff worthy of playing it around these people yet?

07:31Because people used to diss myself.

07:32Like, man, you always pick wack beats to rap over, blah, blah, blah.

07:35You trying to be too different.

07:37So I played it.

07:39Then Dame heard it.

07:40He was like,

07:44Yo.

07:45Okay, play another one.

07:46Play another one.

07:47Play another one.

07:48I'll play another one.

07:49He was like, Yo.

07:50Yo.

07:51It's not even wack.

07:52It's not wack.

07:53Actually it's kind of dope.

07:54Actually it's kind of hot.

07:55You know what I'm saying?

07:56Yo.

07:57Yo, you ain't signed with Capital yet, did you?

08:00I was like, no.

08:01I ain't signed with him yet.

08:03He's like, Yo.

08:04Okay.

08:05Play another one.

08:07So I played another one.

08:09He was like, Yo.

08:10Yo.

08:11Cam.

08:12Cam.

08:13What you think, though?

08:14He could do like a chronic.

08:15He could do like a East Coast chronic, though.

08:17See, he could be like it.

08:19And then he started just going into the whole, the rest of what my career is about to be right

08:23now.

08:24And the difference, like Dame was like, Yo, it could be this or this, but then he could

08:29just rap.

08:30He rap like a regular rap.

08:31He rap like a real rap.

08:32He rap better than the average rapper.

08:33You know what I'm saying?

08:34So now, because of hip hop, G, the blueprint, and Dame, I'm over here with the opportunity

08:45to get my music out, which is what I wanted since third grade.

08:50You know what I'm saying?

‘Kanye West in 2002’ You Had To Be There

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