No I.D.: “‘Man’s World’ was one of those records where I wanted to show people what time it was. It was to show people I really know how to chop samples and do this. It was really meant for Jay’s Blueprint, but somehow Hop [Kyambo Joshua] gave it to Beans before he gave it to Jay.
I was probably a little ticked off by it, but it was still a perfect record. It was one of my quintessential hip-hop records. “It came out a few months before Blueprint did, and it was a really like a statement like ‘I do this for real.”
No I.D.: “That was the first Jay-Z song that I did, and the funny part about it is I gave him that beat around the time of The Blueprint. And the record just sat there until the last few days before The Blueprint 2 had to be turned in and someone was like ‘You remember this record?’ But before it went on the album, they went in and changed my beat around a little bit, so I had problems tracking it.
“I’d been around with them since [In My Lifetime] Vol. 1 and I was even in the studio when they mixed ‘Sunshine.’ But I was never trying to work with Jay, because I came from an era where you worked with who you worked with. To me it was just Common, so I wasn’t really trying to work with everyone like that.
“Me and Hop added Latoiya Williams to the track because we always loved her. She is one of my favorite unknown classic soul singers. That record was kind of the resurgence of No I.D. and the intro to me working with other people.”
No I.D.: “That was around the time when I was starting to shop music to other people. I’m not sure how they got the record, but it got shopped and they got it and recorded to it. It was weird, because at the time, the last place I thought this would land would be G-Unit.
“I remember I saw them on 106 & Park or Rap City, and they said ‘Yeah, we’re working with No I.D.’ and I was like ‘Word?’ I didn’t know they were going to make a single out of it. I had no relationships with them at the time, and they ended up pushing it and being the set-up for Lloyd Banks’ solo album. It was totally out of the blue and unexpected.”
Ghostface killah f/ Styles P & Sheek Louch “Metal Lungies”
No I.D.: “Ghostface, when it comes to hip-hop, was one of my favorite rappers, and definitely one of my favorites in the Wu-Tang. He’s also a really cool dude. So we got together, and every now and again I get to work with people who aren’t just looking for singles. They’re just looking for hip-hop—they want to do it for the sake of making hip-hop.
“You don’t always get a chance to work with the people you want to, and The Lox was always a group I respected. And the same way with the Rhianna [“We All Want Love”] record, organically it was great for me to do it. It was different and I’d done nothing like it and nothing was standing in my way. It’s something I can put in my folder and say ‘No I.D. did that.’
“I had two placements on that Ghosface record [The Pretty Toney LP] and at the time I had a production deal with Def Jam for the [R&B singer] Kaye Fox album. So both of us being in the Def Jam building at the time definitely led to us linking up.”
No I.D.: “That was the first beat I did when I went to Atlanta to work with Jermaine Dupri. We’d always been cool, but then we were establishing a working relationship. I wanted to work with him and learn some things—things that weren’t in my repertoire. I knew what I was doing, but he was winning and I couldn’t understand it. He’s just winning. So he’s like, 'Dion come by and let’s see what’s happening.'
“So they were finishing up the Bow Wow album, and they needed one more joint—a single. Jermaine was like ‘Bring some samples over.’ Truthfully, I was a little hesitant to bring my best samples, so I brought my samples that weren’t as ‘diggin’ in the crates’ or important to me. Why would I pull out a Luther Vandross sample?
“So I pulled out the sample and J.D. was like ‘That’s it right there!’ And I was like ‘Word?’ We started playing around on the CD turntables and Jermaine was telling me to do the record a certain way. In my heart of hearts, I thought it might fall in corny territory. But I decided to put my mind in the hit place, thinking like a producer who makes hits. What would I need to make this huge?
“Maybe a half hour later I played it for him and he was like ‘That’s it.’ Then a few weeks later the record was done and Omarion was on it and I was like ‘Oh man, Omarion is on this?’ [Laughs] And not to diss Omarion, but I didn’t like the hook, I thought it was wordy. I didn’t think it was a hit, I felt everything was going wrong with the record. Then I said to myself ‘Dion, humble yourself. Get out of the real hip-hop world and accept the fact that you don’t know everything.' Who am I to front? And that was actually my first record that went No. 1. It was all over the place, on 106 & Park, on the radio and then it went No. 1. “It changed my whole way of thinking and how I produce. I had been making it so hard for myself, so I’m like, 'Damn—this isn’t that hard at all. I can do these types of records and it’s okay.’”
No I.D.: “I was working with a producer by the name of Miykal Snoddy. I don’t like to be a guy who has a bunch of ghost-producers, so I’ll honestly say that he did the majority of that beat. I moreso put the direction of the record together.
“It was the first time I worked with Bump, and of course I’d been working with Mikkey. It was something to tell the story of that time period. It was a real street record. 10 toes on the ground. It was an underground moment—a moment in time. It should’ve been a changing of the guard with these guys for Chicago rap.”
No I.D.: “Jermaine Dupri hit me and was like, ‘Let’s go work with Jay in New York.’ Now, I really like working with people, so I was ready to go up there and record with him. J.D. and I decided to work on the beat together in the studio.’
“So we’re in the studio and Lebron’s there, and Beyonce’s there. And I was off to the side with my headphones on doing the beat on my laptop. Everyone kept looking at me like ‘What’s this guy doing over there on his computer?’ No keyboard—I was just on my MacBook. I’m sure they thought I was just surfing the net or something.
“‘Jay and Jermaine looked over at me like ‘What do you got?’ So I play it and Jay’s like ‘Awww sh1t that’s it. Get that laptop back out and let’s do some more.’ So that was the first time we jousted like that in the studio. It was also my first Nas collaboration, and the record really put me back in motion.”
No I.D.: “So ‘Fallin’ was another record I did with Jermaine [Dupri]. The chops were real choppy on that, and I was somewhat known for sample beats. It was also something we’re not used to hearing from Jermaine and his whole So So Def sound. It was a hardcore hip-hop record, not something to dance to.”
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No. I.D. Tells All: The Stories Behind His Classic Records!!!
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Woo Thang(600/OTF) got caught for killing Tee Grizzleys auntie.....Tee Grizzley ..
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