I already had my relationship with Big you know, from before.
We came in the business around the same time.
‘93, ‘94.
I met him in a session doing a song for Red Hot Lover Tone we did called “4 My Niggaz.”
And he would always tell me, "Yo, you make dope beats, but you don't have nothing for me."
It's like basketball when they say you can't hit a jump shot.
You go back in the gym and you keep shooting. So he tells me this, I keep shooting.
We used to conversate all the time.
He's like, "Yo, I'm working on my album.
I need some beats.
I can't move around.
I'ma send Cease. I need Cease to meet you somewhere.”
Got in my car, drove down, gave him like about 20 minutes.
Met Cease there, dapped him up.
We conversated.
We kicked it for a little while.
Gave him the tape, went back home.
He gets the tape.
He's like, "Yo, you got some fire here.
YO, I got a few here that I might want."
I get a text from Daddy's house, I knew the number, 757-0808.
They like, "Big wants you to come down and lay this track."
I get my 1200,950 disc, I come now.
Nobody's there. It's just an empty room, ‘cause remember he's not going nowhere.
Laid the beat down.
Everything else just started playing from there.
The most important thing is always finding the right drums.
That's what gives the whole track the energy and the feel.
Even from the 90's ‘til now, you have 808s and hi-hats and the 808 snare.
It drives what the music is.
You know, today's generation, they figured that out.
But for me, it's like that's always been a thing.
If the drums aren't right, then it won't give me a feel for what I need to do.
Really it's two tracks. It's one just for the kick.
It's a kick and a 909, which plays together at the same time.
High hat and snare, that's all intertwined together on one track.
We're in the age, people be like, "Yo I did 10 beats today."
Shit, you could spit five hours looking for that one sample to go on top of your drums.
I found this two dollar record I had.
I was playing through it and I was like, "I like the sounds."
And then…
Everything was cool until the sample clearance came.
Whatever the cost was to get the record cleared, they would do.
So Puff makes the call.
You know, he's Puff Daddy.
Who's gonna turn Puff down?
"No."
Clive Davis makes the call.
That's Clive Davis, you know.
The head of Arista.
"No."
Throw in large amounts of money and he's like, "Yo I don't care.
Whatever it is that you guys want to pay.
I'm not clearing it."
Alright.
If it doesn't make the album, we have to do some changes.
In order for it to make the album, we have to make changes.
Puff is like, "I got an idea, just let us live with it."
We gotta keep that vibe.
That vibe gotta be the same vibe.
We need that vibe.
Puff brought in Chucky Thompson to replay all the music and we just recreated the whole thing
Stripped the sample out, kept the drums and that’s how we got what we got.
And all this is a recreation of what Chucky played out on the original sample.
Big was always like, "Rapper gottabe the next instrument."
You the MC, you the next instrument.
One thing I know is him being a rap Alfred Hitchcock.
Because he's able to paint them pictures and those stories.
If Big was alive today, he would still be the greatest.
Hands down.
He would explore new music, even when you hear the Bone Thugz.
I'm sure he would have made a trap record.
He would have experimented with certain producers.
Probably like a Mike Will.
Anyone who was the top of what they did, he would have wanted to do a record with them.
No matter if he was Talib, or if he was Migos ‘cause he's like, "Oh, that's your style?
Let me show you how I can flip your style."