"Chapter 13 (Rich Man Vs. Poor Man)" f/ Ynot

Produced by: Ynot

Common:“We just talked about that the other day—my boy Rassan was saying that Twilight Tone ripped me on that. He called himself Ynot at that time. Tone had came on this one song and really smashed me on this song called ‘Can-I-Bust,’ which is on the flip side of ‘Soul By The Pound.’

“When he had this beat for ‘Rich Man/Poor Man,’ I was like, ‘This is dope.’ He was like, ‘I need to get a verse on this,’ so he was getting his verse and I was like, ‘Man, I’m about to come with some stuff.’ I came with that concept, Black man/White man/Chinese man.

“Obviously you used to tell these jokes when you were young, so I thought it was clever to talk about. Especially because Tone was on that ‘I’m Rich’ thing. He had a crew that was all about ‘We rock Polo.’ That era was them. Even if you ask Kanye, he remembers them. They definitely impacted Kanye in some way.

“I was on the poor man, blue collar perspective. Me and all my guys had working jobs and some were trying to hustle just to make it. We weren’t as flashy as those dudes were. That’s where that whole thought came in. Even if we got money, it’s like ‘This dude ain’t got money so I’m gonna look out for him.’ We still wanted to look good, but that wasn’t the first thing. We was probably gonna spend out money on beers and bills.”

The Twilite Tone: “Some people thought I was a little too hype on ‘Can I Bust,’ so I really wanted people to hear what I was saying this time around. I wanted people to also feel my production and see a perfect balance between the two. I didn’t let Rashid hear my rhymes before he recorded, because I didn’t want him to be influenced by what I was going to do. I didn’t let him hear my rhymes on ‘Can I Bust,’ and I didn’t let him hear my rhymes on ‘Chapter 13.’

“All I asked him was, ‘What’s the last word you’re coming with?’ so I could kick off my verse. I was out to prove I wasn’t no joke, like ‘Yo If you missed me the first time, this is my style and I’m so comfortable with it.’ Everything I say on this shit is going to make sense, and it’s all serious business. These rhymes were so advanced. This is something you could kick now. People are still figuring this shit out years later.

“Trackwise, I wanted to make something that was my style. “So when I went into making that beat, I chopped up the Detroit Emeralds drums [‘You're Getting a Little too Smart’], the same drums Dilla used for ‘The Light.’ And I chopped up Archie Whitewater [‘Cross Country’]—the only other person I know messed with that was my man Extra P. That was something I had found—no one told me about that record. I used the Akai 2800 and used the SP1200 for the drums.

“The beat was also ahead of its time. I didn’t even have hi-hats going on. It was straight kick and drums. The way I was doing snatches—nobody was doing snatch-outs like that back then. It took almost 10 years for other people to do that. I was very adamant about pushing the envelope of hip-hop—I was almost too serious about it.

“Peter Kang and them wanted to make this record a single. They wanted to shoot a video and everything. I don’t know what happened, but it never ended up happening. The label and Peter Kang were pushing for it, and that was to be the beginning of the career of Ynot and The Late Show. Peter Kang had wanted to sign me, but unfortunately in my ignorance of the record industry, I sad I was in a crew, and didn’t take the solo deal because I had loyalty to the crew. I didn’t know I could take the deal and then bring them along later. I’m not gonna say ‘I woulda, coulda, shoulda,’ because that was a great record and a great moment in my life. I learned a lot from it.”