Great Rap Songs Supposedly Written in 15 Minutes

Sometimes, that's all it takes.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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It's an easy way to dismiss a song by saying, "This sounds like it was made in 15 minutes." It's the equivalent to saying that your child could probably paint that. (They couldn't. Temper your enthusiasm for your unexceptional child.) But—just as Top Chef contestants can sprint around kitchen counters and create incredible foodstuffs out of garbage, glue, and a time constraint—so can recording artists. (Studios cost a lot of money! Don't front.) So, owing to the pressure of the clock or even strokes of genius or, for some, not caring one iota, there are a bunch of great songs drummed up in microwave time. Here's a few Great Rap Songs Supposedly Written in 15 Minutes.

Written by Jeff Rosenthal (@itsthereal)

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Raekwon "Incarcerated Scarfaces" (1995)

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Album: Only Built for Cuban Linx
Maybe it's a quality gained from being in a group with so many people, or maybe the angel dust he used to lace his weed with, but Raekwon records extraordinarily fast. Some of his best songs were done in the time you could order a pizza, including "Eye for an Eye" and "Verbal Intercourse" (where he, Nas and Ghostface Killah all got their verses finished in quick succession). A lot of the beats that ended up on his debut Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... were supposed to be placed on GZA's debut, Liquid Swords. But Rae got to them first by having the faster pen.

With "Incarcerated Scarfaces," Raekwon told Complex, upon hearing the beat, "I was like, ‘I want this shit! This is me!’ I wrote my rhyme in maybe like 15 minutes. The whole three verses. I was just flying. It was just coming to me ‘cause that’s how I get it in sometimes. If something really yokes me up like this, the beat just go, then I’m ready to get on it. I just aired that shit out in like 15 minutes. Before you know it the song was popping, hook on it, everything. We like, ‘That’s Cuban Linx'."

Ja Rule f/ Jennifer Lopez "I'm Real (Murder Remix)" (2001)

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Album: Pain Is Love

Like, of course. This probably required zero thought, the kind of thing you doodle in a notepad while on the phone with someone else. Ja Rule was making hits hand over fist around the turn of the millennium and this was just the second of three Top 10 singles he released within four months. Ah, to think that would end so soon after. So it was a no-brainer to team up with Jennifer Lopez. Considered the hottest woman alive at the time, Maxim readers were writing thinkpieces on her, hand over fist IF YOU CATCH MY DRIFT.

As he told Complex in an interview earlier this year, “Irv Gotti made the track and I wrote the record in literally 10, 15 minutes." But quickness allows for careless errors, as when he wrote in the n-word for J. Lo to say. A minor controversy erupted—basically boiling down to "she's Latina!" and "so are Big Pun and Fat Joe"—helping the song stay at the top of the charts for an even longer time than it probably would've. Who knows. It was late 2001, 9/11 had just happened, no one was thinking clearly.

Kanye West "All Falls Down" (2004)

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Album: College Dropout
As lore goes, Kanye once locked himself in a room doing five beats a day for three summers. 1,395 beats, allegedly, if math and memory serve correct. So, clearly he can work in a pinch. But somewhere along the way, he put across the impression that he's a perfectionist. Maybe he said something once or twice. But this is also the guy who threw out 80% of Yeezus when the walls were closing in, who crafted the "Get Em High" beat and many others in a quarter-hour, this is the guy who recorded his "Runaway" verse in one take.

Perhaps his greatest effort in this regard, though, was when he did this soulful stunner from College Dropout in the time it takes to microwave a potato. In a recent interview, he gave credit to dead prez, telling the New York Times that he drew inspiration from the hard-edged duo because they proved to him that rapping with a message could sound cool. He went on to say, "I was able to just write 'All Falls Down' in 15 minutes." The song—a pointed and funny and poignant and vivid takedown of Black American values—ended up becoming Kanye's first Top 10 record, complete with a video starring Stacey Dash.

Lloyd Banks "Warrior" (2004)

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Album: Hunger for More
Of 2006's "Cake," Lloyd Banks told an interviewer, "I wrote that record in about 15 minutes, no exaggeration. That’s the fastest record I wrote since 'Warrior.'" Now, "Cake" is a good song, but "Warrior" takes the...uh...I know there's some phrase that would work here. I just can't think of it—I'll come back to it later.

Banks recorded "Warrior" when the dial on his hype machine was turned all the way to the right, in the run-up to his debut in 2004, Hunger for More. Not to be confused with the also-great "Warrior Part 2" on the same album—which includes guest spots from Eminem, Nate Dogg, and 50 Cent—the OG track features Banks holding down his own turf. Plus it features lines like, "If that's your man warn him/'Cause there's enough bullets in here to hit every NBA patch on him." So, yeah. It's a great song.

T.I. "What You Know" (2006)

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Album: King
King was such a moment. It was the sound of a man making the streets sound like the top-most point of a mountain. His buzz couldn't have been bigger, which is saying something, considering that—with 2004's Urban Legend—he was able to perform a few seconds of "Bring Em Out" at a pool party on Fox's The OC. But "What You Know" was something different, it was a crossover record that fully crossed over.

There are differing reports as to how it got done in such a short amount of time—it's been alleged that only the hook got done in fifteen minutes—but the producer, Caviar, explained how it all came together in an interview: "I was in the studio when T.I. did 'What You Know.' When he heard the track, he was like, ‘Yo turn that up again, turn that up again.’ He turned it up and after that he just went in and it was a wrap. I saw him do the song within like 15 minutes." Alas, he never performed it for Ryan and Marissa.

Jay Z "Say Hello" (2007)

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Album: American Gangster
As seen time and time again, as popularized in his documentary Fade to Black, Jay is famous for not writing lyrics down, unless they're decoded in a book that one can buy for $59.99 or when used as a promotional tool for songs soon-to-come on a Samsung phone. Maybe that's how he saves time in the studio, because he can bang out hashtag-classics in mere minutes. 

His verse to "Brooklyn's Finest" was done in 15; his contribution to Beyonce's "Crazy in Love," in 10. With "Say Hello," DJ Toomp's string-laden bouncer off American Gangster, Jay was in and out in 15. Apparently, it reminded Jay of older days, as Toomp recalled: "That shit felt incredible, and I knew that it was meant to happen. 'Man, that’s that classic shit,' Jay told me. 'That fit with this Roc-a-Fella shit man."

Jay Electronica "Exhibit C" (2009)

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Album: N/A
It's become a rather meme-ish fact that Jay Electronica does not put out music regularly. Or at all. Sure, he's released a few to the Internet—a 15 minute ramble set to the score from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Willy Wonka quotes; "The Ghost of Christopher Wallace," when Diddy was trying to sign him/ruin his career—but the legend of Jay Elec largely traces back to "Exhibit A" and "Exhibit C," both from 2009.

Where "A" was great, "C" transcended, an instant classic in the eyes of rap fans and MTV's annual roundtable hivemind. The song was apparently written and done in 15 minutes, something quickly whipped up with Just Blaze as something to play for a radio appearance with Angela Yee (then at Sirius' Shade45, who also acted as his manager at the time).

They never made it to her show, though, as he allegedly fell asleep. Just Blaze would later play it during Tony Toca's slot on the same station. It's just unbelievable that—considering all the radio silence in the years since—Jay Elec and Just Blaze made "Exhibit C" like a batch of pancakes.

Waka Flocka Flame "O Let's Do It" (2010)

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Album: Flockaveli
Complex: When you first got the beat for "O Let's Do It," how fast did it take for you to record that song?

Waka Flocka Flame: 10, 15 minutes.

Let's try and not act surprised that Waka can not be found sitting around with pen and pad, measuring out eight bars, syllable by syllable, iamb by iamb. It's hard to imagine him even sitting still, let alone writing. But Waka's success with "O Les Do It" once again reveals a pattern amongst these artists: Far more often than imagined, these 15 minute sessions lead to an artist's first hit.

This was Waka's, a head-shaking bass-rattling club wrecker produced by L-Don Beatz, which would later include Rick Ross, Gucci Mane, and a year-making verse from Diddy. It's the song that made people take him seriously, which would then be followed by "Hard N Da Paint," "No Hands," and "Grove St. Party." All one album.

Mac Miller "Donald Trump" (2011)

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Album: Best Day Ever
Some people may say that this song is not an all-time great. And those people would be wrong. Donald Trump does not associate—willfully or not—with inferior products. His ceilings aren't just gold, they're the goldest. His ties aren't just classy, they're the classiest. His attitude isn't just disgusting, it's the..ahh..racist-est?

Anyway, Mac Miller came out of the gate as many rappers have: As white kids from Pittsburgh, trying to make it in this crazy world. His producer Sap said in an interview, "Mac wrote the song in like 15 minutes. It came about so naturally. It was a fun record and turned out to be a hit. It’s beyond what I imagined."

When the song came out, Trump responded with his usual hyperbole, calling Mac "the next Eminem." (Which, as mentioned a few lines up, is because Trump notices skin color.) But Trump is not firm in his ways: Months after the RIAA sent Mac a gold plaque, Mac clowned Trump in a video for Complex, and the Apprentice host "fired" Mac, threatening lawsuits and sending out mean tweets directed at Mac. Trump always knows how to extend his 15 minutes.

Juicy J "Zip & A Double Cup" (2011)

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