back in the day in the late 90's the scene in Chicago hip hop was basically broke down into 2 camps. The first was all the southern style fast rap groups like Twista, Crucial conflict, soldiers of war type acts, all of which dominated the south and west sides of the city.
Then you had the backpackers that preferred the gritty NY sound with the beats in the low to mid 90's bpm, which were mostly around the north sides of the city with some small pockets everywhere else. These were Common Sense, Rhymefest, Gravity, Juice, and a few others.
Grav came out first and had a whole bunch of kanye's beats on there, but the album went no where, as many can confirm this that if you want to make it as an artist in Chicago, you have to leave chicago. For some reason, its filled with vampires that bring you down and "super heaters" which is like a hater on steriods that will sabotage everything in your life to bring you down.
Around 97-98, having been in LOVE with Rza's style, I had my own beat cd's that basically was my own take on Rza. What I would do is have drums/breaks somewhat similar to Rza, and chop samples like dj premier, but also put my own spin to it. Well one of my own spins to it was to pitch up the samples and chop and use the high pitch style and I would add syncopated drums/hats/congas/bongos to them since I was already being influenced by the faster rapping beats of legendary trackster and the whole south side style in the Chi.
Well these beat Cd's eventually got into the hands of Don C., Kanye's manager. I knew quite a few people in his inner circle, doug inf, no i.d, and a few other cousins and what not. So we were on the phone regularly and people were going bonkers over my high pitched syncopated tracks. Well all of a sudden, Kanye's people stop pickin up for me, stop answering my calls, or calling back.
Next thing I know, I start hearin Kanye come out with all these high pitched sampled syncopated tracks and I was like WTF!!!!!!. I was still a newbie to the game and Ye had a few years on me so he already had a foot in the door havin done a track on a foxy brown album and a jermain dupri track.
Still there was absolutely nothing I can do. He never directly copied any of my tracks to a T, just took the whole high pitch/syncopated style and blew up off of it.
On top of that, he wasn't rapping. He was only producing. Well in the CHi, Rhymefest was making a name for himself on the battle circuit and beating virtually everyone. He had started working with Ye's inner circle and he has a very distinct style of rapping, voice, flow.
Well when Kanye came out with his first album, where he's rapping, guess who he sounds exactly like to a "T". Rhymefest. He took his whole style, jokes, parodies, swagger, everything, and ran with it.
IN one sense it really sucks cause I coulda had that shine, but on another note life goes on and you move on.
If it's one lesson I have to share to fellow producers, be super ****in careful who hears your stuff and who's hands its in.
Don't get me started on Common. He got his ass beat at his own birthday party by those very same "super haters" I referenced earlier. It was around his 2nd or 3rd album and he had a bunch of features from alot of local emcee's and the label made him take them off. He never said anything to them, so they found out when the album dropped. He gets back into town one day and he has a Bday party with some family at his dad's house. Some of those same features that never made the final album came by and a few of them just whooped on him ....in his own house, in front of his family, on his birthday....
That's when he basically permanently moved to NY
Then you had the backpackers that preferred the gritty NY sound with the beats in the low to mid 90's bpm, which were mostly around the north sides of the city with some small pockets everywhere else. These were Common Sense, Rhymefest, Gravity, Juice, and a few others.
Grav came out first and had a whole bunch of kanye's beats on there, but the album went no where, as many can confirm this that if you want to make it as an artist in Chicago, you have to leave chicago. For some reason, its filled with vampires that bring you down and "super heaters" which is like a hater on steriods that will sabotage everything in your life to bring you down.
Around 97-98, having been in LOVE with Rza's style, I had my own beat cd's that basically was my own take on Rza. What I would do is have drums/breaks somewhat similar to Rza, and chop samples like dj premier, but also put my own spin to it. Well one of my own spins to it was to pitch up the samples and chop and use the high pitch style and I would add syncopated drums/hats/congas/bongos to them since I was already being influenced by the faster rapping beats of legendary trackster and the whole south side style in the Chi.
Well these beat Cd's eventually got into the hands of Don C., Kanye's manager. I knew quite a few people in his inner circle, doug inf, no i.d, and a few other cousins and what not. So we were on the phone regularly and people were going bonkers over my high pitched syncopated tracks. Well all of a sudden, Kanye's people stop pickin up for me, stop answering my calls, or calling back.
Next thing I know, I start hearin Kanye come out with all these high pitched sampled syncopated tracks and I was like WTF!!!!!!. I was still a newbie to the game and Ye had a few years on me so he already had a foot in the door havin done a track on a foxy brown album and a jermain dupri track.
Still there was absolutely nothing I can do. He never directly copied any of my tracks to a T, just took the whole high pitch/syncopated style and blew up off of it.
On top of that, he wasn't rapping. He was only producing. Well in the CHi, Rhymefest was making a name for himself on the battle circuit and beating virtually everyone. He had started working with Ye's inner circle and he has a very distinct style of rapping, voice, flow.
Well when Kanye came out with his first album, where he's rapping, guess who he sounds exactly like to a "T". Rhymefest. He took his whole style, jokes, parodies, swagger, everything, and ran with it.
IN one sense it really sucks cause I coulda had that shine, but on another note life goes on and you move on.
If it's one lesson I have to share to fellow producers, be super ****in careful who hears your stuff and who's hands its in.
Don't get me started on Common. He got his ass beat at his own birthday party by those very same "super haters" I referenced earlier. It was around his 2nd or 3rd album and he had a bunch of features from alot of local emcee's and the label made him take them off. He never said anything to them, so they found out when the album dropped. He gets back into town one day and he has a Bday party with some family at his dad's house. Some of those same features that never made the final album came by and a few of them just whooped on him ....in his own house, in front of his family, on his birthday....
That's when he basically permanently moved to NY
