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