Just Blaze Tells All: The Stories Behind His Classic Records (Part 2)

The superproducer talks about making beats during the glory days of Roc-A-Fella.

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Complex Original

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Last week, we brought you part one interview with Just Blaze where he talked about working his way up in the rap game. Today, we bring you part two of our interview where we focus on the glory days of Roc-A-Fella. Mostly because, from 2002 to 2003, dude worked out of Baseline studios and made nothing but fire. We asked Blaze about producing on Jay-Z's The Blueprint 2: The Gift and The Curse, Freeway's Philadelphia Freeway, Cam'Ron's Come Home With Me, as well as other records.

Blaze didn't hold anything back as he revealed which song on Blueprint 2 was originally a Nas diss, how his relationship with Dame Dash wasn't always all good, and how Erick Sermon helped him get one of his biggest checks ever (at that time). Plus, he told us about how (at one point) he had to take Freeway's career into his hands, the lost remix to "Roc The Mic" which featured State Property and Jay-Z, and how Cam'Ron was genuinely excited to have Hov spit a verse on "Welcome To New York City."

No more hand claps! JUST BLAZE!!!!!

As told to Jaeki Cho (@JaekiCho).

Cam'ron f/ Juelz Santana “Oh Boy” (2002)

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Album: Come Home With Me
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Diplomat / Def Jam
Just Blaze: “There was drama about that song being Jay's originally, and that they stole Jay's beat or whatever. It totally wasn't like that. Originally, the beat was much faster. I made it as an up-tempo record for Bleek but he turned it down. I reworked it and slowed it down, but he still wasn't really feeling it.


 

There was drama about that song being Jay's originally, and that they stole Jay's beat or whatever. It totally wasn't like that.

 

“Jay walked in and heard it and was like, 'Yo, that's serious,' but he wasn't working on an album at the time. He had just finished Blueprint 2, so he was like, 'Hold that for me.' There's a million beats like that. Jay said the same thing about 'Pump It Up.' Sometimes he'll hear a beat and like it but he won't like it a year later when he's making an album.

“Hip Hop, who was A&R'ing at the time, would have a case full of CDs. One day, Cam and them came to the studio and asked Hip Hop if he had any beats. Hip played a bunch of beats and the 'Oh Boy' beat was on one of the CD's. They did the record, and Guru called me like, 'Yo, Cam and them is about to do this 'Oh Boy' joint.' I was like, 'Go ahead.' That was it. They did it, and they took it to radio like five minutes later, before I could even hear it.

“I was on my way to the studio to hear the record. I was at a lounge and realized that I was hearing it off the radio. That was when Power 105 had just started. There weren't any DJs around. It was automated and they were playing the original demo version that Cam had brought to Angie's show. They weren't even playing the finished version for the first few months, because everything was by computer, and they hadn't updated their computers at the station.

That goes to show you that every once in a while, you have a good song and you don't have to spend a million dollars to shove down the radio's throats. Every once in a while, you just have a record that's special. That was one of them.”

Cam'ron f/ Jay-Z & Juelz Santana “Welcome to New York City” (2002)

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Album: Come Home With Me
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Diplomat / Def Jam


Just Blaze: “I originally made that for Freeway, but then Cam came in the studio. They'd been wanting to get Jay on a record, because up until that point, Jay hadn't done anything.

“Cam came into the room like, 'Yo, yo, I got 'em, I got 'em, I got 'em. I think he's going to do it.' He was going around saying it. Obviously, it's funny because of how the history ended up between them. Cam was genuinely excited that Jay was [going to be on that record].


 

It's funny because of how the history ended up between them. Cam was genuinely excited that Jay was [going to be on that record].

 

“He was like, 'He's agreed to do it. He said he'll do it today, he just needs the beat. I need a beat, I need a beat!' I played a beat I was making for Freeway, and I was like, 'What about this?' He was like, 'Yeah, that could be it.' I went into the hook really quick and sang the 'Welcome to New York City' part, and that was that.

“I heard a voice saying 'Welcome to New York City,' so I sang it. [Laughs] A lot of times, people think that there's this big mystery behind things. Creativity, sometimes you don't know where it comes from. You might know what inspires you, but you don't know where the idea comes from.

“For me, that's what it was. I was like, 'Yo, this might sound good. 'Welcome to New York City!'' The concept of that record was about New York. Then, the song became a New York anthem. That was pretty much it.“

Cam'ron f/ Memphis Bleek & Beanie Sigel “The Roc (Just Fire) (2002)

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Album: Come Home With Me
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Diplomat / Def Jam


Just Blaze: “Beans was trying to do some weird, overlapping rhyme scheme. I don't think anyone ever caught it. Jay's actually on that record for, like, two words. People don't realize that. It was towards the end of Beans' rap, he screams out 'Jigga Man!'

“I don't know why he did that, but it's there. That's probably the funniest thing about that record. They were all one crew under the same roof trying to make good music, but it wasn't like things were peachy all the time.

“I don't talk about my records like this too much, but that beat was retarded, and we all knew it. This beat is beyond me. It's special.


 

Bleek kills it and sets it off perfectly. Dame wanted to take him off because his claim was, 'We need to position Bleek as a young LL because the ladies love him so much. We don't need him to be on this record talking reckless or whatever, because we need to position him as the ladies man.'

 

“I remember Hip Hop saying, 'We need a welcome to Roc-A-Fella record.' Everyone was in agreement, so that's what we did. This was actually the beginning of Dame and I falling out, because Dame wanted to take Bleek off the record.

“Bleek kills it and sets it off perfectly. Dame wanted to take him off because his claim was, 'We need to position Bleek as a young LL because the ladies love him so much. We don't need him to be on this record talking reckless or whatever, because we need to position him as the ladies man.'

“No one's saying anything. Everyone is just standing around, looking around. I don't even think Bleek was in the room at that time. Dame was trying to push things in that lane. I said to him, 'You're using the LL example. You forgetting about 'I Shot Ya'? You forgetting about 'I'm Bad'? Like you're forgetting about 'Can't Live Without My Radio'?'

“I said, 'Duke, those are all hard records. What made LL dope was that he could make a record like 'I Need Love' and then turn around and do 'Rock The Bells.' He could do a 'Hey Luv' or 'Lounging,' and turn around and do 'I Shot Ya,' or 'One Shot At Love' and turn around do 'Mama Said Knock You Out' and then take it to club and do 'Jingling Baby.'

“The girls already like Bleek. We don't need to push him off of hard records and onto girl records just for the sake of him being an MC that appeals to females, because that's not really where LL is at. Guys and girls liked LL in his prime, because he could do both and it was believable.'

“So, I spoke out very vocally about that, and I think that was the beginning of the fallout between Dame and I. We fought on that record. I remember saying to him, 'You've always said that you're not the music dude, you're the business dude. So why are you getting involved in the music?'


 

I think that was the beginning of the fallout between Dame and I. We fought on that record. I remember saying to him, 'You've always said that you're not the music dude, you're the business dude. So why are you getting involved in the music?'

 

“Me and him had already had a little bit of tension, so I was feeling some kind of way. At that point, I'd been putting records together for the label for a couple of years, and I was starting to see more of the dynamics of how things worked. I was like, Let me do what I do.

“I respect everyone's opinion, and I take everyone's opinion into consideration, but that record was perfect. You couldn't ask for a better welcome to Roc-A-Fella record. I was like, 'The only thing that could make this record better was if Jay got on it, and Jay will probably get on something else. This is fine the way it is, and Jay being on it might affect someone else's verse.'

“Someone might have gotten their verse cut down, and I don't want to do all that. The record is dope the way it is. We went back and forth throughout the course of that night, but the record stood the way it was and thank God, because that's a mean one right there.”

17. Cam'ron f/ Juelz Santana “Losing Weight Part 2” (2002)

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Album: Come Home With Me
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Diplomat / Def Jam


Just Blaze: “'Losing Weight Part 2' wasn't done when Cam was at Roc-A-Fella. That was done when he was still at Sony. It was around the same time that I first met him and he met Ye and got the “H to the Izzo” beat, which ended up being an issue between them.


 

Diplomats had their movement, Roc-A-Fella had some new blood. I had some new inspiration. It was great, but as we all know, it went the route it went in the end.

 

“Cam wanted the 'Losing Weight Part 2' beat because it reminded him of the Intro on The Dynasty. I kind of did that on purpose. Musically I made it a follow up to the sound of The Dynasty Intro, and I guess Cam always liked that beat. He wanted one that felt just like it and I was like, 'Well, I happen to have one that feels just like it right here.'

“It was cool. At the time, it was all love. Everybody was happy. Diplomats had their movement, Roc-A-Fella had some new blood. I had some new inspiration. It was great for everybody, but as we all know, it went the route it went in the end.”

Jay-Z “Hovi Baby” (2002)

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Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam


Just Blaze: “Jay's maybe given me one or two concepts over the years, 'Hovi Baby' was one of them. That was an idea that he'd had for a minute. He had the hook in his head for a day or two, but we didn't have a beat for it.

“I made that beat the day Left Eye died. It was a TLC sample, a live version of 'Digging On You.' I was driving with my ex-girlfriend in the car and she had just died. All the radio stations were doing their tributes. We were in the car on 25th street, and they played that.

“That was the first song they played, and I was stunned. [My ex-girlfriend] was talking to me, but it was like everything she was saying became Charlie Brown's teacher in the background. She went from talking to just 'womp, womp, womp, womp, womp.' I couldn't hear anything else but this intro.


 

I made that beat the day Left Eye died. It was a TLC sample, a live version of 'Digging On You.'

 

“I was freaking out like, 'I have to find this now.' I don't think it was on any album. It was the video version of the song. I went and found and downloaded the video, but it had talking on it from the dude who was announcing them. So I called every record collector store, and I found the 12 inch.

“The 12 inch had the intro open, and I went and started the beat. The sample itself was so crazy that it overpowered me for like an hour. It had so much going on that I had to figure out just what to take and how to take it, and then—as fate would have it—right when I nailed it Jay happened to walk into the room.

“He was like, 'Oh my God, you're a genius. That's it, how'd you know?' I had forgotten that we talked about the 'Hovi Baby' idea the day before. So he spit the hook over the beat and it worked.

“I gave him the raw beat as it was, and it was really just the drums and the sample. Afterwards, I went back and added the bass line, and some of the synths after he went and did his two verses.

“I didn't add the intro until we mixed it, but I told him I was going to add a crazy intro. That's when he said, 'I want to introduce my band right now, Just Blaze and the Blazettes.” Then I went back and added a live band thing after the synths.

“He had talked about setting it up that way, so I was like, 'Yo, even though it's not there yet, act like you're introducing a band. Then I'm gonna go back and add that stuff sonically.'


 

I can get around on the keyboard. I'm not the greatest keyboarder alive, but there's times when I'll have it in my head before it's done, so I already had the vision in the notes and everything. Every once in a while I have my little moments where I can see the sounds, and that was one of them.

 

“I was surprised. I can get around on the keyboard. I'm not the greatest keyboarder alive, but there's times when I'll have it in my head before it's done, so I already had the vision in the notes and everything. Every once in a while I have my little moments where I can see the sounds, and that was one of them. I put that down and mixed it at Sound on Sound. We mixed that and 'U Don't Know' on the same day.

“He hit me back like, 'Yo, you're my favorite. You're the best. Keep going.' That record re-solidified our relationship. We already had a relationship, but he was super hype. If you had heard the original record and then what it ended up being, it wasn't completely different but it was night and day, in terms of how big it sounded.

“I do a lot of my records more with performance in mind than club or radio, and I think that moment was the beginning of that aesthetic for me. It was a really big-sounding record, not just a lot of instrumentation but the way the instrumentation was played. I was envisioning it being played by a band at the Garden or at a huge venue.

“It was like the start of where I would eventually end up, which was 'Show Me What You Got.” A lot of times I say that if you really listen to certain producers you can hear where they first start to figure out a sound versus where they actually nail it. 'Hovi Baby' was the precursor to 'Show Me What You Got,' in terms of figuring out that live performance sound.”

Jay-Z “Don't You Know” (2002)

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Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam


Just Blaze: “Originally, that was a Nas diss record. The version that came out was not the one that was originally done. If I'm not mistaken, he recorded the Nas diss version, sent it to [Funkmaster] Flex, and then it went away. I want to say Flex played in one time, and that was it.


 

Originally, that was a Nas diss record.

 

“Then, we changed it around. There were still subtle shots at Nas, but it wasn't a Nas diss record anymore. They needed that record from Jay for the Paid in Full soundtrack and Jay kind of wanted that to be his 'Who Shot Ya.' It wasn't for an album.

“Remember, originally, 'Who Shot Ya' wasn't on Ready to Die. They put it on there when they remastered it. He just wanted to have a dope record that was just for the streets. We had the record laying around for a while and decided to use it for Paid in Full.”

Jay-Z “Some How Some Way” (2002)

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Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam


Just Blaze: “I found a dope sample and chopped it the right way, and Jay and Scarface had already done a couple of records together. At the time they had just done 'This Can't Be Life.' I want to say they did 'Guess Who's Back' right after we did this one. They were talking about doing an album together, the three of them. That would've been crazy.”

Jay-Z f/ M.O.P. “U Don't Know (Remix)” (2002)

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Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam


Just Blaze: “We did the Blueprint in such a short period of time that we knew we had to get it out right away. Not that I rushed through 'U Don't Know.' We knew it was hot, but I wanted to do more with it.

“I always wanted to make it bigger and better, and make the drums hit harder, and the bass more in your face. I always say to myself, 'I wish I got the opportunity to do that over.'

“We always used to say that M.O.P should have been on that record, even though we all like the original. It's one of those things where you look back and say, 'Yo, M.O.P would have killed this.'

“We were all talking about it in the studio one day and, Jay didn't even tell anybody. I guess he was trying to surprise us, but he walked into the studio one day and was like, 'Yo, put this in.' Put in the CD, and it was M.O.P rhyming on 'U Don't Know.'


 

I always wanted to make it bigger and better, and make the drums hit harder, and the bass more in your face. I always say to myself, 'I wish I got the opportunity to do that over.'

 

“Our jaws hit the floor. We were like, 'When did you do this?' I guess he had the conversation with them, and they made it happen. They did it to the original beat, but I said, 'There's no way I'm letting this come out with them rhyming over the instrumental. We've got to make this special.'

“This was my opportunity to do it all over again with all the things that I had learned since I had done the original, and all the ideas that I had with the original that I didn't get to implement. I'm constantly learning, so it was one of those chances to take a hallmark record of mine and revisit it with new techniques and new approaches.

“I had gotten a lot better at time stretching and my mixing had gotten a lot better. So the end result was a dope followup to a classic record, without it being disrespectful to the original. They sound really good back-to-back.

“'U Don't Know' the original comes on when I'm spinning, and it sets the tone. Then I play the remix, and it's the same beat but it's smashing you in your face so much harder that it really brings the whole thing home. So, its the same dynamic of starting something, but then really revisiting it later on and luckily I was able to.”

Jay-Z “Meet The Parents” (2002)

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Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam


Just Blaze: “That was a completely different beat until we mixed it. For whatever reason, they didn't want to attempt to clear the original. I don't think there was an issue where they couldn't clear the sample, but it was too much of a process to get the sample cleared.


 

Jay kept recording, and it was getting close to the date where we had to start turning stuff in. He was adamant about that making the album, because he wanted the story element on the album. He didn't really have a lot of those, so I reproduced the record in one night.

 

“Jay kept recording, and it was getting close to the date where we had to start turning stuff in. He was adamant about that making the album, because he wanted the story element on the album. He didn't really have a lot of those, so I reproduced the record in one night.

“That was all keys and live instrumentation. Sometimes you have a record on a sample, and you try to rework it on a rush job, and it doesn't turn out too well. I brought in one of the musicians to play on it, and it was one of those instances where it came out better than the original.

“We were doing a lot of creative stuff at that time. I did the scratches on 'It Was All A Dream' that Kanye did. On that record, those scratches are still going but the pitch is constantly dropping. A lot of DJ's come up to me and ask, 'How did you do that?' We did a lot of crazy tricks at that time.

“We did a lot of vocal tricks at that time using different software, and I think I printed his raw vocals on a CD. I used the CDJ to do the stutter and bring the pitch down. That's how I got his voice to do that. That's one of my personal favorites on there, just because of the instrumentation on there and the story was dope.


 

It wasn't until 2001 or 2002 that you could have a Pro Tools rig in your house without it costing it $40,000 and taking up a corner of your apartment. My first Pro Tools rig took up a quarter of my apartment.

 

“I've always had a certain amount of that in my work, but around that time I learned to incorporate more and make it more apparent. It was a lot more subtle before that. There were still beat keys, there'd be bass and things like that, but my ear was still in training.

“It was after The Blueprint when I started taking my sound into my own hands. I had more time to practice, because Pro Tools had become more widely available. I was on Pro Tools since the beginning, but the plug-ins had started to become better. Things had started to become cheaper.

“It wasn't until 2001 or 2002 that you could have a Pro Tools rig in your house without it costing it $40,000 and taking up a corner of your apartment. My first Pro Tools rig took up a quarter of my apartment.

“We were at the point then, where we had laptops and portable hard-drives that were actually capable of keeping up. So when my ear was developing, I was able to practice more and be more on my own. I didn't have to rely on an engineer to translate my vision of the record.”

Dame Dash, Jim Jones, & Cam'ron “I Am Dame Dash” (2002)

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Album: Paid In Full Soundtrack
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam


Just Blaze: “That was supposed to be the outro to Freeway's album, but we never finished it. If you listen to 'I Am Dame Dash,' she's singing 'Free! I want to be free!' Dame heard the beat and was like, 'Let me give this to Cam.' I was like, 'I ain't doing nothing with it, go ahead.' We never even mixed that song, because I lost the beat. There was no tracking session to the beat. I lost the original tracking session, so they had to rap to the two-track.”

State Property “Roc The Mic” (2002)

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Album: State Property Soundtrack
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam
Just Blaze: “We were all living in Miami at the time. Me, all of State Property, and Guru got it in for a long time. Freeway and I were cool. He was just the new kid that was hanging around, but I liked him. He had a humble air about him, unlike some of the other guys. I used to bump heads with Sparks a lot, because he felt that he was entitled to beats from me. That's how he used to approach it.


 

Freeway and I were cool. He was just the new kid that was hanging around, but I liked him. He had a humble air about him, unlike some of the other guys.

 

“There was always some kind of drama. Freeway was humble, quiet and cool about it. He had a big verse out on '1-900-Hustla' verse. So, it was interesting to me that he was very humble in the way he moved.

“So it was like six in the morning. He walks in, like, 'Yo, do you think that I could get a beat some time?' I had the chops for 'Rock The Mic,' and the sounds that I was using in the ASRX at the time. That's what I was using for a short period of time.

“So I was like, 'Ah, alright. Fine. Here, hold that.' I made that beat in five minutes, gave it to him and left. I didn't think anything of it. I got back to the studio by 11am, and he had the whole thing done by himself.


 

There was originally a 'Roc The Mic (Remix)' that I don't think ever came out. It was a remix with everybody from State Property and Hov. They all had eight bar verses, and then Jay dropped a sixteen at the end. I completely forgot that it existed, and I came across it when I was shutting down Baseline.

 

“I went downstairs to the people, and everybody was up early at the pool blasting it. I was like, 'This is crazy.' Beans was like, 'Yeah, as a matter of fact, I'm getting on this.' I think Sparks might have been on 'Roc The Mic' originally.

“There was a bunch of records that he got knocked off of. There was originally a 'Roc The Mic (Remix)' that I don't think ever came out. It was a remix with everybody from State Property and Hov. They all had eight bar verses, and then Jay dropped a sixteen at the end. I completely forgot that it existed, and I came across it when I was shutting down Baseline.

“I don't know why that never came out. We did it, and then it sat for a few months. Eventually we put it out, and that was that. It did what it was going to do.

“You get that hot moment, and that was certainly mine. It wasn't like I didn't develop relationships, but it was at the point where all of a sudden I was super hot. There's a new kid on the block who's in a video every five minutes, and every producer that hits a certain stride hits that.”

Eric Sermon “React” (2002)

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Album: React
Label: J Records
Just Blaze: “There's actually someone singing on that. I had a dude, I have no idea where he is now, but he came in and sang that. I had to learn a little Hindu to put it all together. It was inspired by something else, but we chopped it and made our own thing out of it.

“That was a record that I had, and I chopped words out of it to make it say that. Then I had the dude sing it, not knowing it was the whole thing about suicide.


 

Then I had the dude sing it, not knowing it was the whole thing about suicide. So, they had the whole thing where Eric had to jump out the window and people were like, 'Was that record a cry for help?' I was like, 'Nah, it was just a coincidence.'

 

“So, they had the whole thing where Eric had to jump out the window and people were like, 'Was that record a cry for help?' I was like, 'Nah, it was just a coincidence. It wasn't premeditated.'

“That came out at a time when doing that Middle Eastern sound was hot. The funny thing is that I had done that beat about three or four years before. I had given it to this girl named Filayan Knight. I had done it in my house years before and just thought it sounded cool.

“There was a girl that was A&R'ing an album for Redman, and she asked me for some beats. I remembered that I had that old beat sitting around, and I thought that Redman might have sounded good on it.

“I never heard anything back. She called me two years later and was like, 'Jermaine Dupri wants to cut you a check for that beat that has a weird Indian sound associated with it.' Like I said, that sound hadn't become popular yet.

“So I was like, 'Yeah, tell him to hit me.' We emailed back and forth and his thing was, 'Yo I love this beat. I think you're onto something, but I don't know what I would do for a hook.' So I said, 'Alright.'

“It never happened. Two years after that, I'm sitting in a hotel in L.A., and I get an email from Angie Martinez. And I know Angie, like if I see her we'll speak, but we weren't like that to where we were just talking.


 

They had a cassette and recorded the record on a Karaoke machine. That's what went up to the radio. Then, they sent me the Pro Tools files to mix the record.

 

“She emails me like, 'This Eric Sermon record is crazy.' I was like, 'What do you mean? I've never met Eric Sermon in my life.' She's like, 'The joint...Me and Enuff just played it like four times in a row.' I'm like, 'I'm not in New York. I'm in L.A.'

“Ten minutes after I had gotten that email, I started getting mad emails like, 'Yo this record is crazy.' I had no idea what anybody was talking about. A manager hits me like, 'So, Eric Sermon just did a record to a beat of yours that he found. And J Records wants to pay for it immediately.'

“So I'm like, 'What is the record?' Finally, I get wind of what beat it is, and I guess what happened was that Eric was working on his album. He still didn't have what he thought was a strong single, so Redman was like, 'Yo, I got this old beat from that dude Just Blaze, listen to this.'

“They had a cassette and recorded the record on a Karaoke machine. That's what went up to the radio. Then, they sent me the Pro Tools files to mix the record.

“It was one of those instances where, when you're mixing and you take it apart and put it back together, you lose that initial spark that was there when you made the beat. I thought the mix was cool, but when I sent it back to Eric at the label he was like,'There's something missing, it doesn't feel the same.'


 

I ate pretty nice off that record, because they put it out without permission. I know Eric was going around saying that was the first big check I had ever gotten.

 

“I fought them on it at first, but I went back and listened to it and realized there was a certain element missing. It wasn't a specific sound, but the gel wasn't there in the mix. So we took the karaoke version, and we mastered that.

“That's what went out to the radio, and that's what made the album. It just goes to show that sometimes you don't have to over-mix and over-think a record. Sometimes that initial spontaneous spark is what matters.

“Eric was like, 'Go ahead and get your money.' So, I ate pretty nice off that record, because they put it out without permission. I know Eric was going around saying that was the first big check I had ever gotten.

“That wasn't the first big check I had ever gotten, but it was probably the biggest check that I had ever gotten up until that point. They knew they had a hit on their hands, and they knew it was unauthorized.”

Mariah Carey f/ Cam'Ron “Boy (I Need You)” (2002)

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Mariah Carey f/ Jay-Z & Freeway “You Got Me” (2002)

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Album: Charmbracelet
Label: Island / MonarC


Just Blaze: “We had done a bunch of sessions after 'Oh Boy.' One night a guitar player named Chris Sholar, who works with Q-Tip now if I'm not mistaken, came through to the session and I had some ideas.

“He played this guitar lick, and I was like, 'Yo, take this, play that.' I don't play guitar, but sometimes you just have to hear one chord, and you know what direction it's going in after that. He played that one chord, and I loved it and started directing him.

“We were doing a lot of the sped-up samples, so Mariah started singing, 'You know you got me.' Then she was like, 'What if we took it and slowed the beat all the way down. I'll sing it really slow. Then speed it back up, so it sounds like a sped-up sample.' I was with it.


 

I kind of took Freeway's career into my own hands for a minute.

 

“We were going to go to the extent of clearing a fake sample, just to throw everybody off. We never took it that far, because the legalities of that would have been crazy. We would have had to trade a fake record and a legal record for it, and then clear the fake record. It just got too far for something we were going to do just for laughs.

“We did the record, and she was like, 'And then maybe you can call your girlfriend.' I was like, 'Yo, at the time...' I kind of took Freeway's career into my own hands for a minute. Me and Freeway had a good relationship, so I took him under my wing. I was putting him on everything that I was doing.

“I put him on the EA Sports NBA Live soundtrack, and shot a video for it. I put him on the Faith Evans remix. They were fighting me on it at first like, 'Who's Freeway? blah, blah, blah.' Then they got it and they were like,'Yo this is crazy!'


 

When Freeway says, 'I pull up on your strip and go,' and she does her part, he wanted gunshots over it. I was like, 'Dude we can't have gunshots on a Mariah Carey record. I'm sorry, but we'll let her part get her point across.'

 

“It was a tag team. Every time someone called me for something, I was throwing him on it. So it was the same thing with the Mariah record. She definitely wanted Jay, and I was like, 'Listen, my man Freeway is definitely about to be one of the next big things, and Jay might take a second. I can get Freeway on the record right now.'

“So, I had him come down. He recorded his verse right away. We got Jay later on and worked out a deal for it appear on Freeway's album and Mariah's album. That was big.

“A funny thing about that is when he says, 'I pull up on your strip and go,' and she does her part, he wanted gunshots over it. I was like, 'Dude we can't have gunshots on a Mariah Carey record. I'm sorry, but we'll let her part get her point across. Obviously, Freeway wasn't my artist, but I was kind of treating it as such. We had that kind of relationship, and some good music came out of that.”

Freeway f/ Jay-Z & Beanie Sigel “What We Do” (2003)

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Album: Philadelphia Freeway
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam
Just Blaze: “'What We Do' is the first street single and the first radio single. Everyone knows that now. Everyone at the label would even acknowledge that after the fact, but Dame was hell-bent on the whole dual song, dual video with the same beat. That was his vision and he was the CEO.


 

It definitely hurt Allen Anthony. He didn't have the same budget to work his record, and his record was great. The video was exactly what that record needed. Had Allen Anthony had the resources to work that record the way it should have been, he would have had a whole different career.

 

“It definitely hurt Allen Anthony. He didn't have the same budget to work his record, and his record was great. The video was exactly what that record needed. Had Allen Anthony had the resources to work that record the way it should have been, he would have had a whole different career.

“It didn't hurt Freeway at all, but it definitely didn't help him. It was a good song, but I didn't think it should have been his first single. By the time 'Flipside' came out, things at the label started to get into a bit of disarray. It was one of those things where the single didn't really get worked, and the video didn't get a lot of play, even though it was a huge record on the streets and in the club.

“It didn't need [a hook]. 'Even though what we did is wrong' is the hook in the same way that 'Oh Boy' is the hook on 'Oh Boy.' Jay came to check on Freeway in the beginning of the album and on the end of the album. He made two visits to the studio. The first time he came to hear the album, Freeway played him 'What We Do,' and Jay was like, 'I gotta jump on it.' Of course if Jay and Freeway are on it, Beans had to jump on it and that was that.”

Freeway f/ Peedi Crakk “Flipside” (2003)

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Album: Philadelphia Freeway
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam
Just Blaze: “Oschino was originally on 'Flipside' and got yanked off. It was Freeway doing two verses and then Oschino on the last verse.

“That record was originally a derivative of 'Roc The Mic.' Jay wanted Beyoncé to do an R&B version of 'Roc The Mic.' I flipped the beat and did an R&B version of it. At the end, Jay was going to get on it so I changed the beat up a little for him to rhyme to.

“Obviously, Beyoncé's 'Roc The Mic' never got finished. Freeway got his hands on the switch-up at the end that Jay was going to rhyme to and did this song called 'Make The Cake.' That's 'Flipside's' original title.


 

Jay wanted Beyoncé to do an R&B version of 'Roc The Mic.' I flipped the beat and did an R&B version of it.

 

“I said, 'Alright, hold up. This is crazy, but it sounds too much like 'Roc The Mic,' I'm going to have to switch up the beat.' So I went in and did the beat over.

“I kept the music, but I beefed it up. I made it a lot bigger, so it didn't sound like a 'Roc The Mic' remix. Then we put Peedi Crack on the second verse and the Intro, and the rest was history.

“That would have been Freeway's first single, but it didn't exist in its current form until after they decided to shoot the video for 'Alright.' It existed as 'Make The Cake,' and it was cool, but right before we shot the video for 'Alright,' I made 'Flipside' from 'Make The Cake.' Then it was like, 'Yo, this is crazy, but it's too late. We're already in the process with this other record.'

“'Flipside' still gets mad burn in the club, because it wasn't his first record and it didn't get burned out. That's why you can still play it in the club. You can still react like the song just came out.”

Freeway f/ Faith Evans “Don't Cross The Line” (2003)

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Album: Philadelphia Freeway
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam


Just Blaze: “That whole album Philadelphia Freewaywas the combination of everything that was going on at the time. I probably couldn't pin-point one record, because we were just going in and making records. One of my favorite records on that album that's also super underrated is 'Don't Cross The Line,' with Faith Evans.


 

My favorite moment off that whole Freeway album was when she was singing over him like, ''Cause Freeway is in full effect and all these bitches want from me is just to hear my rhymes.'

 

“Being that Freeway jumped on the 'Burnin Up (Remix),' we got her on 'Don't Cross The Line.' She was just ad-libbing off of what he was saying. The beat is very simple, but there's a lot going on. It's near to my heart.

“There was a brief phase that I went through where I was doing one-bar-loops over and over, kind of like in 'What We Do.' We did this shortly after we did that.

“That was inspired by a lot of the production on Masta Ace's SlaughtaHouse. I was trying to make something that sounded like SlaughtaHouse. It didn't, but that's that zone that I was in. It's one of my favorite albums of all time.

“My favorite moment off that whole Freeway album was when she was singing over him like, ''Cause Freeway is in full effect and all these bitches want from me is just to hear my rhymes.' I play that part over and over. I'm probably going to listen to it after I hang up with you. I just love that record. That was a good moment in time.”

Freeway f/ Allen Anthony “Alright” (2003)

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Cam'ron f/ Juelz Santana “I Really Mean It” (2003)

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Album: Diplomatic Immunity
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Diplomat / Def Jam
Just Blaze: “For that record and for 'We Built This City,' the beat was sitting around for a long time. I didn't make that beat for anyone in particular. I had bought this dude's record collection. There was about 3000 records, and we put them all in storage except for one box.


 

I sampled the live version of 'I Got Over Love' instead of the studio version. A lot of people don't know that. If you listen to the studio version though, he never really says, 'I really mean it.' It's only on the live version.

 

“First things first, I never saw those records again. I put them in storage, and we forgot to pay the bill. That one box had that Major Harris record in there, and a lot of people don't realize that I sampled the live version of 'I Got Over Love' instead of the studio version.

“A lot of people don't know that, so when they go and do their originals mixtapes and whatnot, they play the studio version. If you listen to the studio version though, he never really says, 'I really mean it.' It's only on the live version.

“Anyway, it sat around for about a year. Cam, Jim and Juelz came to the studio one night, and they wanted to work. I hadn't seen them in a while, but they were like, 'What you got?' I didn't have anything that I had made for them specifically, but I had some old stuff and got them that.


 

The whole beef with Nas had just started to pop off. It ended up being a Nas diss record to a certain degree. That bothered me a little bit, but the record was crazy.

 

“Cam left and Jim and Juelz did a record to it. I played a little bit of it two years ago on Shade 45. It was those two going back and forth, one of the first records where Jim really started rapping. Cam wasn't even on the record. He came in the next day and heard it and was like, 'Oh, nah, nah, nah. I'm taking this.'

“The whole beef with Nas had just started to pop off. It ended up being a Nas diss record to a certain degree. That bothered me a little bit, but the record was crazy. The record came out on a Funkmaster Flex mixtape, which is why you hear Jim say, 'Flex I got you.'

“Nas and Flex had beef a little bit at the time, so they were riding with Flex. On Flex's mixtape, it's actually playing too slow. If you listen to both of them, there's a pretty significant change. It irks me to this day, because every once in a while I come across somebody playing it off the Flex tape.”

Cam'ron f/ Jim Jones, Juelz Santan & Hell Rell “We Built This City” (2003)

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Album: Diplomatic Immunity
Label: Roc-A-Fella / Diplomat / Def Jam


Just Blaze: “One day I was at Baseline and Jim walked in and he goes, 'Yo Jus, I got this idea. I got this sample.' he's going on and on. There's this whole big build up and then he finally plays the record and I'm like, 'I did it already. I did it about three years ago.' He's like, Yeah right. I'm like, 'Hold up I'll be right back.'


 

Jim Jones walked in and he goes, 'Yo Jus, I got this idea. I got this sample.' There's this whole big build up and then he finally plays the record and I'm like, 'I did it already. I did it about three years ago.'

 

“I come back with the beat on a CD. And he's bugging because I guess this is an idea that had been in the back of his mind already and being that I was working with them so heavily at the time he kind of took it as a sign that it was meant to be. Which it probably was and we went and did the record right away.

“If you listen to the record you'll notice that it sounds significantly different than what I had been doing at the time and that's because it was so old. I had done it years before. 'We Built This City' is very old so that's why it sounds [less polished than records I did with Jay].

“I didn't even make that beat for anybody. Sometimes you just make beats in your spare time when you're younger because you don't have anything else to do and it just sat around for a number of years. I will say Hell Rell was at the end of the record and he killed that.”

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