Last Call

Yo, fuck you, Kanye, first and foremost

For making me do this shit muh'fucker

Had to throw everybody out the motherfucking room

'Cause they don't fucking

I'd like to propose a toast

I said toast motherfucker

And I am

(Here's to the Roc)

And they ask me, they ask me, they ask me, I tell them

(Here's to Roc-A-Fella)

Raise your glasses, your glasses, your glasses to the sky

(Here's to the Roc)

This is the last call for alcohol, for the

(Mr. Rockefeller)

So get your ass up off the wall

The all around the world Digital Underground, Pac

The Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer of the Roc

I take my chain, my 15 seconds of fame

And come back next year with the whole fucking game

Ain't nobody expect Kanye to end up on top

They expected that College Dropout to drop and then flop

Then maybe he stop savin' all the good beats for himself

Roc-A-Fella's only niggas that helped

My money was thinner than Sean Paul's goatee hair

Now Jean Paul Gaultier cologne fill the air, yeah

They say he bougie, he big-headed

Would you please stop talking about how my dick head is?

Flow infectious, give me 10 seconds

I'll have a buzz bigger than insects in Texas

It's funny how wasn't nobody interested

'Til the night I almost killed myself in Lexus

Now I am

(Here's to the Roc)

And they ask me, they ask me, they ask me, I tell them

(Here's to Roc-A-Fella)

Raise your glasses, your glasses, your glasses to the sky

(Here's to the Roc)

This is the last call for alcohol, for the

(Mr. Rockefeller)

So get your ass up off the wall

Now was Kanye the most overlooked? Yes sir

Now is Kanye the most overbooked? Yes sir

Though the fans want the feeling of A Tribe Called Quest

But all they got left is this guy called West

That'll take Freeway, throw him on tracks with Mos Def

Call him Kwa-li or Kwe-li, I put him on songs with JAY-Z

I'm the Gap like Banana Republic and Old Navy, and ooh

It come out sweeter than old Sadie

Nice as Bun-B when I met him at the Source awards

Girl he had with him, ass coulda won the horse awards

And I was almost famous, now everybody love Kanye

I'm almost Raymond

Some say he arrogant, can y'all blame him?

It was straight embarrassing how y'all played him

Last year shoppin' my demo, I was tryin' to shine

Every motherfucker told me that I couldn't rhyme

Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem

Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams

I use it as my gas, so they say that I'm gassed

But without it I'd be last, so I ought to laugh

So I don't listen to the suits behind the desk no more

You niggas wear suits 'cause you can't dress no more

You can't say shit to Kanye West no more

I rocked 20 thousand people, I was just on tour, nigga

I'm Kon, the Louis Vuitton Don

Bought my mom a purse, now she Louis Vuitton mom

I ain't play the hand I was dealt, I changed my cards

I prayed to the skies and I changed my stars

I went to the malls and I balled too hard

Oh my god, is that a black card?

I turned around and replied, "Why yes"

"But I prefer the term African American Express"

Brains, power, and muscle, like Dame, Puffy, and Russell

Your boy back on his hustle, you know what I've been up to

Killin y'all niggas on that lyrical shit

Mayonnaise-colored Benz, I push Miracle Whips

And I am

(Here's to the Roc)

And they ask me, they ask me, they ask me, I tell them

(Here's to Roc-A-Fella)

Raise your glasses, your glasses, your glasses to the sky

(Here's to the Roc)

This is the last call for alcohol, for my niggas

(Mr. Rockefeller)

So get your ass up off the wall

So this A&R over at Roc-A-Fella, named Hip Hop

Picked the "Truth" beat for Beanie

And I was in the session with him, I had my demo with me

You know, like I always do

I play the songs, he's like "Who that spittin'?"

I'm like "It's me", he's like "Oh, well okay"

Uhh, he started talkin' to me on the phone

Going back and forth, just askin' me to send him beats

And I'm thinking he's trying to get into managing producers

'Cause he had this other kid named Just Blaze he was messin' with

And um, he was friends with my mentor, No ID

And No ID told him, "Look, man, you wanna mess with Kanye"

"You got to tell him that you like the way he rap"

I was all, I dunno if he was gassin' me or not

But he's like he wanna manage me as a rapper and a producer

I'm like, oh shit

I was messin' with, uh, D-Dot also

People were like this, started talking about the ghost production

But that's how I got in the game, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be here

So you know, after they picked that "Truth" beat

I was thinking I was gonna do some more work

But shit just wasn't poppin' off like that, I was stayin' in Chicago

Had my own apartment, I be doin' like, just beats for local acts

Just to try to keep the lights on, and then to go out and buy

Get a Pelle Pelle off lay-away, get some Jordans or something

Or get a TechnoMarine, that's what we wore back then

I made this one beat where I sped up this Harold Melvin sample

I played it for Hip over the phone, he's like, "Oh, yo that shit is crazy

Jay 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 me

So I went and um, I was listening to Dre Chronic 2001 at that time

And really I just, like bit the drums off "Xxplosive"

And put it like with a sped-up sample, and now it's kind of like my whole style

When it started, when he rapped on "This Can't Be Life"

And that was like

Really the first beat of that kind that was on The Dynasty Album

I could say that was the, the resurgence of this whole sound

You know, I got to come in and track the beat

And at the time I was still with my other management

And I really wanted to roll with Hip Hop 'cause I, I just needed some fresh air

You know what I'm sayin' cause I been there for a while

I appreciated what they did for me but

You know there's a time in every man's life where he gotta make a change

Try to move up to the next level

And that 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 studio you know how he do it, one take

And he said

"Check this out, tell me what you think of this, right here"

And I heard it, and I was thinking like, man

I really wanted more like of the simple type JAY-Z

I ain't want like the, the more introspective, complicated

Rhy- or the, in my personal opinion

So he asked me, "What you think of it?"

And I was like, "Man that shit tight"

You know what I'm sayin', man what I'ma tell him?

I was on the train, man, you know

So after that, I went back home

And man I'm, I'm just in Chicago, I'm trying to do my thing

You know, I got groups, I got acts I'm trying to get on

And like there wasn't nothin' really like poppin' off the way it should have been

One of my homies that was one of my artists, he got signed

But it was supposed to really go through my production company

But he ended up going straight with the company

So, like I'm just straight holdin' the phone

Gettin' the bad news that dude was tryin' to leave my company

And I got evicted at the same time

So, I went down and tracked the beats from him

I took that money came back, packed all my shit up in a U-Haul

Maybe about ten days before I had to actually get out

So I ain't have to deal with the landlord 'cause he's a jerk

Me and my mother drove to (come on, let's just go)

Newark, New Jersey, I hadn't even seen my apartment

I remember I pulled up (Kanye, baby, we're here)

I unpacked all my shit, you know, we went to Ikea

I bought a bed, I put the bed together myself

I 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 time

So I came up there to Baseline, it was Beans' birthday, matter of fact

And I played like seven beats, and, you know I guess he was in the zone

He already had the beats that he wanted

I did "Nothing Like It" already at that time

But then Jay walked in, I remember he had a Gucci bucket hat on

I remember it like, like it was yesterday

And Hip-hop said, "Yo play that one beat for him"

And I played "Heart of the City" and really I made "Heart of the City"

I really wanted to give that beat to DMX

And I played another beat, and I played another beat

And I remember that Gucci bucket, he took it and like put it over his face

And made one of them faces like, ooh

Two days later I'm in Baseline and I seen Dame

Dame 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" (Jay got classics, G)

You know I ain't talkin' shit

I'm like "oh shit", and all this time I'm starstruck, man

I'm still thinking 'bout, you know I'm picturing these niggas on the show

The Streets is Watching, I'm lookin', these were superstars in my eyes

And they still are, you know

So, Jay came in and he spit all these songs like in one day

And in two days, I gotta bring up one thing, you know

Go back in the story, the day I did the 'Can't be Life' beat on track

I remember Lenny S, he had some Louis Vuitton sneakers on, he think he fly

And Hip Hop was there, I think Ty-Ty, John Meneilly, a bunch of people

I 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 shit

Mayonnaise colored Benz, I push miracle whips"

And I saw his eyes light up when I said that line

But you know the rest, the rap was like real wack and shit

So that's all the response

He said, "Man that was tight"

That was it, you know, I ain't get no deal or nothin

Okay, fast forward

So, Blueprint, "H to the Izzo" my first hit single

And I just took that proudly, built relationships with people

And my relationship with Kweli

I think was one of the best things to ever happen to my career as a rapper

Because, you know, of course, later he allowed me to go on tour with him

Man, I appre- I love him for that

And at this time, you know I didn't have a deal

I had songs, and I had relationships with all these A&R's

So 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, whatever

So I'll play them these post-Blueprint beats or whatever

And then I'll play my shit. I'll be like, "Yo but I rap too"

Hey, I guess they was lookin' at me crazy

'Cause you know, 'cause I ain't have a jersey on or whatever

Everybody out there listen here

I played them "Jesus Walks" and they didn't sign me

You know what happened, it was some A&R's that fucked with me though

But then like the heads, it'd be somebody at the company that'll say, "Naw"

Like, Dave Lighty fucked with me

My nigga Mel brought me to a bunch of labels

Jessica Rivera, man...

"Man, you niggas is stupid if y'all don't sign Kanye, for real"

I'm not gonna say nothin to mess my promotion up

"Y'all niggaz is stupid", let's just say I didn't get my deal

The nigga that was behind me, I mean

He wasn't even a nigga, you know?

The person who actually kicked everything off

Was Joe 3H from Capitol Records

He wanted to sign me really bad

Dame 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 it

I wanted to play some songs, 'cause you know

Cam was in the room, Young Guru, and Dame was in the room

So I played, actually it's a song that you'll never hear

Or maybe I might use it, so, it's called "Wow"

I go to Jacob with 25 thou', you go with 25 hundred, wow

I got 11 plaques on my walls right now

You got your first gold single, damn, nigga, wow

Like the chorus went

Don't bite that chorus I might still use it

So I play that song for him and he's like, "Oh shit"

"Oh shit it's not even wack"

"I ain't gonna front, it's kinda hot"

"It's actually kinda hot"

Like they still weren't looking at me like a rapper

And I'm sure Dame figured, like man, if he do a whole album

If his raps is wack at least we can throw Cam on every song

And save the album, you know

So, uh, Dame took me into the hallway, and he's like

"Yo man B, B, you don't want a brick, you don't want a brick"

"You gotta be under an umbrella, you'll get rained on"

I told Hip-hop and Hip-hop was all, "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 3H

That, you know, 'cause I told him I was gonna do it, and I'm a man of my word

I was gonna roll with what I said I was gonna do

Then, you know, I'm not gonna name no names

But people told me, "Oh he's just a producer-rapper"

And told 3H that told the heads of the Capitol, and right

The day I'm talking about, I planned out everything I was gonna do

Man, I had picked out clothes, I already started booking studio sessions

I started arranging my album, thinking of marketing schemes

Man I was ready to go

And they had Mel call me, they said

"Yo, Capitol pulled on the deal"

"Yo, Capitol pulled out on the deal"

And, you know I told them that Roc-A-Fella was interested

And I don't know if they thought that was just something I was saying

To gas them up to try to push the price up or whatever

I 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, don't you

So won't you raise your glass, won't you

So won't you raise your glass, don't you