Ghostface Killah f/ Styles P & Sheek Louch “Metal Lungies” (2004)

Album: The Pretty Toney Album

Label: Def Jam

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.”