10 Things You Didn't Know About Kanye West's 'Late Registration'

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According to a number of sources, M.I.A. was originally supposed to be featured on “Drive Slow.” Maya turned down the opportunity due to a busy schedule. The song wound up featuring GLC and Paul Wall. Although Yeezy and Maya have never collaborated in an official capacity, he did sample her vocals for T.I.’s “Swagga Like Us,” which they later performed together at the 2009 Grammys.

According to some estimates, the making of Late Registration cost upwards of $2 million dollars. Although those numbers aren’t confirmed, Kanye did tell MTV exactly how much it cost him out of his own pocket saying, “I put my money [into Late Registration]. I'm $600,000 in the hole right now on that album.” Shit, with debt like that you’d think he actually spent four years in college. ZING!

While writing a cover story about Kanye, Common, and John Legend for VIBE back in 2005, Complex’s Editor-in-Chief Noah Callahan-Bever observed something interesting in the studio with Kanye: He kept a piece of paper with side-by-side track listings. Kanye later admitted that he did it “so that he can be sure that his LP hangs song-for-song with Common’s [Be].”

That might sound a bit odd since they’re both on the same team, but considering that Kanye produced most of Be and the best players always say "your only competition is yourself," it totally makes sense.

As if he wasn’t involved with enough classic albums, it turns out Rick Rubin had a hand in ‘Ye’s sophomore set—albeit a much smaller one than usual. Much of the hype surrounding Late Registration was about how Kanye was working with Jon Brion, a producer who had no background in hip-hop and was best known for producing movie scores and Fiona Apple records. Maroon 5’s Adam Levine was another unlikely collaborator. And how did ‘Ye get in touch with both Brion and Levine? Through a mutual friend, Rick Rubin.

According to Rolling Stone, British trip-hop group Portishead was a huge influence on Kanye. Not only was he a big fan of their album classic debut, Dummy, but he was also a fan of their live album, Roseland NYC Live. It’s also a likely reason why after Late Registration dropped, Kanye followed it up with a live album of his own, Late Orchestration.