Jay-Z, The Dynasty: Roc La Familia (2000)

Label: Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam

Freeway: "I loved The Dynasty because that was my debut to the world. I had just gotten out of jail a couple of months before that. I was on house arrest. Talking to Beans, he would call me, ‘I’m here with Jay, we doing this. We in Miami.’ I had never even seen Miami before.

“I’d traveled from street before to like Vegas but I’d never been to Miami. So he like, ‘We here. When you get off house arrest, I got you. You gonna be right with me. I’m telling you, I got you.’ He did exactly what he said. When I got off house arrest, he had me in the studio recording. I think he was actually supposed to rap on '1-900-Hustler' but he was like, ‘Let Free do it.’ Jay was like, ‘Alright, I’ll give him a shot.’

“I took the beat home, wrote to it, came back, laid my verse. They was loving it. Jay was like, ‘I got you, I’m gonna set you up right. This is your introduction to the world, we’ve got to do something to make it special.’ Right before my verse started they played the little violin, elevator music.

“He’s like, ‘I got you. They put that shit on there, watch how people respond to it.’ He really knows what he’s doing with this music shit. I’m like, ‘Let’s do it,’ and he did it and it was crazy.

“I remember how it ironic it was, we’re at my album release party in Philadelphia at this place called The Blockley. Bleek and Beans had a show there, and I was there with them. I used to be around, fucking XXXXL Rocawear shit that Beans gave me. My man was like, ‘Yo, spit your verse from 1-900-Hustler.’ I’m like, ‘Man, don’t nobody know that shit.’ He’s like, ‘I’m telling you.’

“Beans and them was ready to get off the stage. He gave me the mic and was like, ‘Go ahead.’ So I grabbed the mic and I’m like, ‘First things first, watch what you say out your mouth,’ and the whole crowd was like, ‘When you talkin on the phone to hus-tlers.’ I was like, ‘Wow.’ I’ve never looked back since.

“I didn’t even know that they knew this shit. I knew Jay like it, but I didn’t even know they knew that. At the time, I used to be in the streets heavy. I remember arguing with my baby moms. She like, ‘So why you on Jay-Z’s album? You corny as shit, you can’t even rap. The only reason he put you on there is because he couldn’t find nobody else.’

“That shit really got to me then but the more I think about it, ‘Jay-Z couldn’t find nobody else to put on his album?’ Come on.”