FROM THERE, YOU’VE BEEN ABLE TO WORK ON SOME OF RAP’S BIGGEST ALBUMS. LET’S GO BACK TO THE BLUEPRINT, WHICH CELEBRATED ITS 15TH ANNIVERSARY ON 9/11. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THOSE SESSIONS AND THAT RELEASE?
The most memorable thing about that, besides it being one of my favorite albums, was how it got started off…Being a part of it and being there for that weekend, whatever few days that Jay did those eight records. I forget if it was eight or nine. It was all the Kanye West and Just Blaze tracks at the time. He breezed through a majority of the album. When Jay gets in a zone, it’s just incredible. To actually witness that and be in the studio, to watch him record these records, and be so inspired. Those tracks were so incredible. He was in a great zone and knocked it out. You just saw, this was the beginning of something great. To knock out something of that magnitude, what those songs have meant to the culture, to the album that that was, it was an amazing thing. That is my biggest and best memory from that. It takes, sometimes, a year or two for people to pull of an album like that. He had it done so quickly.
IS THAT YOUR FAVORITE HOV ALBUM? I have three or four. There’s Reasonable Doubt,Blueprint, The Black Album, and I’ve gotta say Watch the Throne. It’s with Kanye, but that’s a shared Jay Z album. Those are my favorite-favorite-favorites.
YOU SAW JAY IN THE EARLY DAYS. HOW IS HE THE SAME AND HOW IS HE DIFFERENT NOW THAN WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED WORKING WITH HIM?
There’s no real difference. He’s always had the same way of working. He gets in his zone. He gets in the studio, listens to tracks, and gives it his all. I don’t think there’s no specific or particular process changing from what The Blueprint was or Vol. 3 orBlueprint 2.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON THAT YOU’RE REALLY EXCITED ABOUT?
Be excited about, shyt, maybe Jay will get the bug to do music again. Who knows? Obviously, nothing confirmed
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