DJ Khalil Tells All: The Stories Behind His Classic Records

The producer behind Dr. Dre's "Kush" talks about working with Drake, Jay-Z, and Eminem.

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It took Dr. Dre nearly a decade and a string of leaks to settle on his first single for his long-awaited album, Detox. However, despite “Kush” being a song by one of hip-hop’s greatest producers ever, the club banger was actually produced by Khalil-Abdul Rahman, better known as DJ Khalil. Born in Seattle but raised in L.A., the 37-year-old California-based Khalil is a protege of Dr. Dre and a member of the band, The New Royales.

Khalil’s name really started buzzing last year after producing four songs on Eminem’s Grammy Award-winning album, Recovery. But Khalil has been in the game longer than you might think and he’s produced bangers for rappers like Nas, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Game, and Clipse. We got down with Khalil to find out which other beats he made for Detox, but instead ended up talking about whose verse G-Unit deleted for fear of beef, and how he helped craft the sonic blueprint for Eminem’s Recovery as well as Drake’s So Far Gone.

As told to Insanul Ahmed (@Incilin)

G-Unit “Lay You Down” (2003)

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DJ Khalil: “I was making a lot of beats and I was sampling a bunch of European progressive rock. I came across this record by a group called Klaatu and they had this crazy sample [‘Doctor Marvello’], but it was pretty much a straight loop. I put those West Coast drums on it, replayed some of the sample, and it came out really dope. I remember giving it to Sha Money XL—he was the A&R of G-Unit [Records] at the time—and he loved it. He was a fan of my work but I was signed to Dr. Dre, so I had to give Dre all the stuff first. It's just funny because you never know what Dre is gonna like. He has a particular ear and my whole thing is that I just give him whatever I got. [Laughs.] You never know what he's gonna pick. So that kinda went to Dre and then ended up with Sha Money. Sha gave it to 50, and then that's pretty much how that song came about.

“It didn't make the album, but they also had a version with Snoop Dogg on it. I've heard it. They played it for me and I was like, ‘Snoop is on this?’ And it was just dope because I had never done anything with Snoop, so to hear it I was like, ‘This is crazy.’ But Snoop said some controversial things and it wouldn't have been a good look for G-Unit if they had put it out. Snoop was kinda calling out some people in the song and 50 had to take his verse off the record. They were just like, 'Nah, we had to kill Snoop’s verse on this. We don't wanna have any issues with anybody.' It's hilarious. [Laughs.] [The verse was about Suge Knight] for the most part. It was kinda crazy but they took him off. I think it was their decision collectively, basically they didn't want Suge breathing down their necks so that's what ended up happening. I don't think that [verse will] ever surface. [Laughs.] They might have just completely deleted his verse, you know what I mean?”

The Game “Da Shit” (2006)

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DJ Khalil: “I made that beat with Dr. Dre in mind for Detox, but Dre passed on it. So I took it to Game. I have a really good relationship with Game—when he got signed to Aftermath is kinda [the same time] when I got signed [to Aftermath] as a producer, so we kinda like grew together over there. I can go work with whoever. I already had a relationship with Game, so Dre and Aftermath didn't have a problem with who I worked with. It wasn't like Dre and Game had a bad relationship. It was just the circumstances of the beef and whatever else was going on at the time.

“I took the track to Game and he started writing on it immediately. He was like, 'This is crazy.' I had the hook on it and everything. It was actually a replay of the artist named Zoogz Rift who is an avant-garde ‘80s rock artist. I added some extra parts to it because the beat had this weird timing on it like it had the extra beat. It was a real challenging record for us to finish because of that little extra half bar. Then Game was like, 'Yo we should take what's his name from Tales from the Hood saying all this shit.' So, he laid the song right there and he was like, 'Yo, take this back and add these parts to it.' So I took it back, added the parts, and brought it back in. Everybody loved it. I remember he was in the studio with Busta Rhymes and Busta was like, 'Yo, who did this beat? You did this?' I was like, ‘Yeah.’ That was my first time meeting Busta Rhymes and he was just like, 'Yo, this is one of the craziest beats I've heard in a long time.'

“I have a real dope relationship with Game. Whenever I have ideas I can just go directly to him and for the most part he'll try it. He'll try stuff out and if he's really feeling it, he'll go in the booth right away. So it was real dope to be there and actually produce the record with him. The dope thing about Game, he's just real creative. He gave me the idea, I took it back, worked all of the parts in. We just collaborate like that. He'll call me and he'll just pitch stuff to me. When you work with an artist that has a vision and actually wants something in particular, and you can deliver it, that’s really dope. That's how it's supposed to work in my opinion."

Jay-Z “I Made It” (2006)

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DJ Khalil: “I had this guy Dante Winslow and his wife make me samples and they put together this piece of music. I thought it was crazy, so I chopped it up, added more instruments to it, and knocked the beat out. I sent it to over to Dre and Dre loved it. He was like, 'I'm keeping this. This is going on Detox.' At the same time, Jay-Z was writing records for him for [Kingdom Come], so Dre sent over a bunch of beats. When Jay-Z heard that beat, he called Dre immediately and was like, 'Yo I need this for my album. I'm working on Kingdom Come right now and I need this.' Dre didn't wanna give it up at first, but then he finally did.

“I remember Dre calling me and saying, 'Congratulations, you made Jay-Z's album. He called me and he just really wanted this beat.’ At first Dre didn't want to let it go, but Jay wanted it real bad, and I think he had already laid the song. [Laughs.] Jay didn't even wait and they were done with the album. That was probably the last song [he recorded for Kingdom Come]. They were mastering in a couple of days, so Dre called me and was like, 'Yo I need the files and I need the sampling information.' At the time, I was really known for sampling. When I told Dre that it wasn't a sample and that it was an original, he was like, 'Are you serious?' That was one of the first joints that there wasn't a sample. That was all original music thanks to Dante and his wife.

"It was crazy. I met Jay-Z [for the first time] at a Lakers game [that same year]. I just walked up to him and I was like, ‘Yo, I produced on your album, Kingdom Come. I did ‘I Made It.’ I’ He was like, 'Man, I love that song. Nice work.' That was pretty much it. He did give me props, but that was pretty much the end of the conversation. I can't say enough about Dre. He just hooked it up man. To have Dr. Dre and Jay-Z endorse your music is kinda incredible."

50 Cent f/ Akon “I Still Kill” (2007)

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DJ Khalil: “That was just a beat that I made. I played everything on it and I worked with a singer/songwriter named Kobe who is featured on a lot of my music. That was one of the first hooks that [Kobe] did on one of my beats. I thought it was so crazy, like, everything he's saying on it, there was no real format. So I just sent it out like that. It was kind of rough, but I thought it was dope so I just sent it out. I remember I gave it to D. Prosper, who was working at G-Unit at the time. I remember giving him a batch of beats and that was one of them. And like seven or eight months later they called me like, 'Yo we need the files. 50 is gonna take that joint.' It came out of nowhere. He'd already laid the song and they took Kobe off and they put Akon on it. But Akon basically sang exactly what Kobe did.

“The funny part about it is, I didn't even hear the song until the record came out. Everybody at Interscope was like, ‘Yo, this record’s crazy. It's probably gonna be one of 50's singles.' Everybody was talking about it, but I didn't even hear the record. I remember going to Best Buy and buying Kanye’s [album] and buying 50’s [album] and that was the first time I'd actually heard the song.”

Nas “Esco Let’s Go” (2008)

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DJ Khalil: “That record has a crazy story behind it. I wanted to work with Nas really bad so my manager got in touch with his manager. So they send me an acapella and it was ‘Let's Go Esco.’ [The song was done but] they wanted a different beat for it. So, it took me like probably two days [to make the beat].

"I probably made three different mixes for it and ‘Let's Go Esco’ was probably the last one I did. I made these samples with my guitar player and my keyboard player. I was trying to make something [that wasn’t] too clean or too “single [sounding]” or whatever.

"Nas just doesn't sound right like that, you know? Nas sounds dope just over raw drums, dirty samples. So I just took a different approach. I remember my boy Chase, he was in the other room [when I made the beat] like, 'Yo! That's crazy!' And, we listened to it the whole day like it was a brand new Nas song.

“So what happened was, I was doing a convention and I was doing a presentation for Propellerhead Software. They make the program Reason, which is what I use to make beats. So they wanted me to play some stuff I was working on. So I was like, ‘Okay, I'm gonna play some exclusive Nas.’

"So, I played a verse of it and I didn't talk over it or anything. I just let it play. [I wasn’t] really thinking that someone was filming it and that they put it up on their website. So people watched the video and they were like, 'Yo, this is some new Nas shit!' The audio is taken directly, it wasn't through another speaker or whatever. The audio was real good, so people started ripping it.

"I remember DJ Muggs—who I had a label with and is a mentor of mine—called me and was like, 'Yo, did you do new Nas?' He played it for me over the phone and I was like, 'How the hell did you get that?' And he was like, 'Dude, it's all over these blogs!'

“The next day it was everywhere and I was panicking because I was going to go into the studio with Nas. When I sent the ‘Esco Let’s Go’ beat, he loved it [and wanted to get into the studio]. I was actually in the studio with him the day before [it leaked] and I had to go back in the studio with him the next day.

"The song had leaked, they were playing it on Hot 97, and people were going crazy over it. I thought he was gonna be mad at me, but he was actually happy about it because the response was so great. They wanted to go with it as a street single, but it just didn't work out.

"It ended up being one of those gems. It didn't make it to the album, but at least I can say I worked with Nas. It actually did more for me than anything. Even though it wasn't really an album placement, my credibility went up so much from making something dope with Nas.

"And the song was good and everyone was like, 'Yo, this is the kinda stuff we wanna hear Nas on.' Everybody was really pumped over it. It was a scary experience at first because that was my first taste of a leak. It was my first time ever officially being leaked and having it be associated with a big artist. I thought I was never gonna work with Nas again, but it worked out.”

Clipse f/ Kanye West “Kinda Like A Big Deal” (2009)

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DJ Khalil: “That's a song that I produced with my production partner Chin Injeti. He's from Vancouver and he's an incredible musician. He plays guitar, keyboards, and all kinds of stuff. We put together that beat. He played the guitars, I chopped them up, and we just kinda made samples. We ended up making this beat with just crazy drums and percussion. Later, my manager called me and he was like, 'Yo, the Clipse wanna come by and they wanna hear some stuff.'

“It was real late, so Malice wasn't there. It was just Pusha T and his manager Steven Victor. I remember playing them beats and Pusha T was falling asleep. He was tired so he just kept falling asleep. So it was just Steven that was listening and he was loving everything. But he was like, 'Can you go back to track number two?' When I played it, he bumped Pusha T, and he woke up and was just looking at the screen. And you could tell he was just like, 'What am I listening to? This is crazy.' He just started rhyming to himself. Then he was like, 'Play that again.' So I played it again and he kept rhyming to himself and he was like, 'Yo, I need this. Make me a CD.' I made him a CD and didn't really talk to him for a while. I would talk to his manager. Then they came back to LA. They stopped by the studio and they were like, 'Yo, you gotta hear the joint, it’s crazy. It's gonna be the single and we put Kanye on it. ' They came into the studio and they played it for me and I was like, ‘Oh my God. This is crazy.’ It was just crazy because Kanye murdered it. I think, Ab-Liva wrote the hook with Pusha T and it was just a dope record because it was so different. They were really going against the grain using that as a single, [because] it was really an underground record.

“I don't know how I got on their radar, but I think that their manager Steven Victor really knows music. He's really in tune with stuff and he really seeks out up-and-coming producers. He's really a student, he studies producers, and he's really on the lookout for something new. And it just seemed like they were on the lookout to really go in another direction, creatively. They're still looking for something new. You never know what they're gonna come up with. So Steven, I think I was on his radar. But I don't think Pusha T even knew who I was or knew anything about what I had done. [Laughs.] I mean, it's cool. He had probably heard stuff but he didn't know who I was. But Steven, he knew.”

Clipse f/ Kobe “Footsteps” (2009)

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DJ Khalil: “After ‘Kind of Like a Big Deal’ happened, Clipse came back and they wanted more records. I had done a bunch of stuff with Kobe singing the hook at the time. ‘Footsteps’ was a beat that I made with my keyboard player Daniel "Danny Keyz" Tannenbaum. It's like a real street record, but it had a different feel to it, it has this positive vibe. When we talked about the hook, they were kind of hesitant because it was kind of a positive record. They were like, 'What made you wanna write something positive?' I was like, ‘It just felt right over that beat.’

“Kobe is incredible because all you do is throw him in the booth and he just freestyles everything. He'll just mumble words, but then he'll come up with dope concepts. And we'll kind of craft it around what he said, but we'll rewrite it. You can just throw him in the booth and his sense of melody is incredible. He sounds dope over really hard music. I met Kobe through a mutual friend back in 2006 or 2007 and we started working. First, we were just working on stuff for him and we just kept working. I don't even know how we got to where he started doing hooks for me, but we just started working a lot together. We just developed a chemistry and we've just had it ever since. Eminem loves Kobe. Dre loves Kobe. 50 was kinda already up on Kobe just because of ‘Still Kill.’ He's just very unique and the hooks that we do are very unorthodox.”

Game f/ Chris Brown, Diddy, Polow da Don, Mario Winans, Usher, & Boyz II Men “Better On The Other Side” (2009)

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DJ Khalil: “[Me and Game] were in the studio working on The R.E.D. Album and we were there for four or five days. The second day is when Michael Jackson died. Game called me and was like, 'Yo, we gotta do something for Michael Jackson. I have this vision. I'm putting in some calls and pulling some favors.' We were at Westlake Recording Studios in L.A., [which is where] Michael Jackson recorded Bad and a few things for Thriller. As soon as we went in, we all kinda talked about it, and then we just started making the track. We started laying the pianos and as soon as Game heard the pianos, he was like, 'Aight, that's it.' Laid the drums and put live strings on it.

“I have footage of this whole thing. I have an actual movie, I just never put it up. Boyz II Men, they were in the studio right across from us and came in. Randy Jackson from American Idol was there. All these people were in the room. We were just talking about Michael Jackson. It was just a crazy day. Through that whole time, we're getting the track together. We gave the track to Boyz II Men and they laid their parts to it in their studio. Game took the track to Record Planet where Chris Brown was. He already kinda had a hook. He had a writer do a hook, he took it to Chris Brown, and he cut the vocals. Sent it to Puffy—he was in New York—he did his vocals, and sent it back. We assembled it and then Game already had his verses. We mixed it that day and then released it the next morning.

"I remember I got out of [the studio] at probably like seven in the morning. Game went to Power 106 and they played it right away. I remember driving back and they were playing it. I'd never been a part of anything like that in my whole time making music. I thought it was a perfect tribute song to him and I thought it was tastefully done. It was good to be a part of it and have all that talent on one song in homage to one of the greatest to ever do it. I'll never forget that day. It was just one of the craziest experiences of my career.”

Slaughterhouse “The One” (2009)

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DJ Khalil: “I'm in a group called The New Royales. It’s me, my production partner Chin Injeti, as well as Liz Rodriguez and Eric Alcott. They're both singer/songwriters from Toronto. I wanted to promote this new thing that I was a part of so I started putting them on hooks for beats. I had them start working on some ideas and they sent me the hook for that. As soon as I heard it, I was like, ‘This is a big record.’ I just added the drums and the bassline. The guitars were already there. I just formatted it and tightened it up. Liz just sounded so incredible on there. She just murdered it.

“I originally made that for Eminem and I pitched it to them. It just never worked out. So the beat just circulated for a while. I tried to send it to Jay-Z, I knew he was working on the The Blueprint 3 at the time. We sent it to a lot of different people and nobody was biting on it. I'd already done some work with Joell Ortiz when he was signed to Aftermath. He eventually got dropped, but we kept in touch.

"His manager Mike Heron got heavily involved with [Slaughterhouse] and he would hit me up for beats. That was in the batch that I sent them and they loved it. So Slaughterhouse was just like, 'We need this record. This could be our first single.' They sent me the song and I was like, ‘Oh, this song is crazy.’ I just thought it was a dope record and it brought attention to the group. It wasn't a pop record, it wasn't an underground record, it was just a good song. I personally thought that the record could have been a lot bigger, maybe if they promoted it more. Now they're signed to Eminem, which is kinda crazy because originally that track was meant for Eminem.”

Drake “Fear” (2009)

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DJ Khalil: “That one I did with Chin Injeti in Vancouver and that was a result of a jam session we did at three in the morning. I remember Chin was kind of falling asleep but the music was just really dope. I took what they did, chopped it up, and formatted it. I brought in a bass player to play bass. Then we added the horns and live strings to it. It was one of those tracks that was just a beautiful piece of music. It just ended up being real dope and emotional. I try to put something like that into all my music. The funny thing is that was like another Nas thing. I had a [Nas] acapella that he had given me. That was kinda how I formatted it, I used [Nas’ vocals] to structure the beat. [His vocals] provided me with a blueprint of what that beat would sound like.

“So what happened was, I had talked to Drake. This was before the whole Young Money thing, like late 2007. My manager put me on the phone with him and we talked. He was already a fan and I sent him a bunch of beats. That beat was in the batch that I sent to him. And he was like, 'Yo, I really love this record. Can you hold it for me? I was like, ‘Sure, no problem.’ We held it for a long time and I didn’t really give that beat to anybody. We kept in touch the whole time, just sending texts and stuff like that. He was like, 'Yo, I wanna put Marsha Ambrosius on it.' And then he was like, 'Dude, I'm going through all my music and I keep coming back to this record. I just don't know what I'm gonna do about the hook.' He had all these ideas, but then I didn't hear from him for a while.

“When they were gonna release So Far Gone on iTunes, Drake wanted to add a song or two. Drake hit me up and was like, 'Yo, I know we did this a long time ago, but it's everybody’s favorite song. I wanna put this on the EP. Is that cool with you?' And I was like, ‘Of course. It's your beat.’ So he puts the hook on it and all I can remember is its impact was just crazy. We talked shortly after that and he was like, 'Yo, this song provided the whole vibe of the So Far Gone mixtape.' He was like, 'This song was kind of the direction and a blueprint. Everybody was saying it was my best song to date.' I remember going to the studio with Drake [recently] to play him some new beats and we were talking about the record and he was like, 'Yo, Jay-Z called me about that record.' He was just like, 'Man, we should've kept this for Thank Me Later.' But he was like, 'It's all good. It was supposed to come out the way it came out.'”

Eminem “25 To Life” (2010)

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DJ Khalil: “2009 was a really crazy year for me, I was just on a roll, and [Eminem’s manager] Paul Rosenberg was loving what I was doing. After I talked to Paul about how the Slaughterhouse record was originally an Em record, he was like, 'Wow, I need you to send me records. Do you have more like that?' And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And I just started sending records over and Em just started recording to them.

“The first day I met Em was the day he won a Grammy for ‘Crack a Bottle.’ Dre called me and he was like, 'Yo, Em wants to meet you.' Dre really helped facilitate the whole thing because Dre is a fan of my music too. He always looked out for me. Always. So I drove out to the studio. Em waited for me and we met for the first time. It was crazy because he was like, 'Yo, I'm just a big fan. I love your music and I've already recorded some stuff. I'm really anxious to play it for you. You're kinda setting the tone for my album and the direction that I wanna go.'

"He played me ‘Won't Back Down,’ ‘Almost Famous,’ and ‘25 to Life.’ I was like, ‘Is this really happening? This is crazy.’ And he was just like, 'Yo, do you have more records?' And I was like, ‘I don't have any on me right now but I can bring you some tomorrow.’ So the next day I brought more records and I was playing beats for Dre and Em in the studio. It was just the three of us. I was just like, ‘This is insane.’ And Em started to write to one of the beats and it was just one of those crazy moments.

Eminem “Almost Famous” (2010)

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DJ Khalil: “I try to give people [beats with hooks and] ideas because sometimes, I'll send beats out and people just won't get it. They just won't know what to do with it. But if you sell it with the concept already on it, people get it right away. [That’s why] I sent over ‘Almost Famous’ with a hook [already] on it. Em works from his studio in Detroit where he has an engineer and all that stuff. So we just started talking on the phone and we were in constant communication about the record. And he was just really like, 'What do you think of the songs?' He really wanted to know what my opinion was, which is cool. And the record was just really powerful. He was literally airing out on every track. But he loved it, it really challenged him. He played me that record and I was just like, ‘This dude is back.’

“I didn't really get to see [Eminem in the studio] but I've heard stories. Dre always talked about how Em always writes in the corner [of the paper] really small and how he had this really weird way of writing everything. And how Em doesn't have an iPod, he walks around with CDs and an actual CD player. [Laughs.] His stories are legendary. But what I've witnessed is that he's just funny as hell. Like, surprisingly funny. To the point where it's like, 'Damn, he just cracked a joke?'

"He's like a regular person, but you want to talk about perfectionists man? His ears and Dre’s ears are crazy. They hear everything. If anything is off just a little bit, they notice it right away. They're very particular about how stuff sounds and they just nitpick everything. If anything jeopardizes the integrity of a record, they're like, 'Yo, we gotta change that.' Or, 'Put that back to the original way it was.' They hate changes because they just like the original energy of music. They don't want to corrupt it or whatever. They fall in love with it from the beginning. Once you start changing stuff they're like, 'Nah.' It kinda loses its vibe to them.”

Eminem f/ Kobe “Talking 2 Myself” (2010)

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DJ Khalil: “He'd already done that record [when I met him]. The funny thing was, when we made that beat, we knew it was [going to be an] Eminem record. Eminem was the first person we thought of when Kobe laid the hook on that. It was something you would want to hear Em on. We'd been sitting on that beat. It had been in circulation for like three years, even through the Shady camp. That beat was made around the same time the ‘Fear’ beat was made.

"It's just so crazy that he ended up recording it and it ended up coming out on his album. It just came full circle, in terms of that record being on his album and him delivering the song exactly how it was supposed to sound. He was supposed to be airing out his feelings and be talking about everything he was going through on that beat. I feel like that was him airing out everything, which is dope. He told me that he literally had to pull everything out of himself to deliver that record because the music is so thick. There's so much music going on that he's screaming at the top of his lungs. That's just how I produce music, it's just a lot of different layers.”

Eminem f/ Pink “Won’t Back Down” (2010)

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DJ Khalil: “Liz Rodriguez from The New Royales was on that hook [originally] because she wrote it along with Erik Alcock. Pink wasn't on it yet. If you hear the version with Liz, it's ridiculous. It's just as good as Pink's version. Liz just has a different tone but she murdered it.

"But Eminem called me from Detroit and he was like, 'Yo, since we have Liz on a couple of these other songs already, what do you think about Pink getting on this record?' I was like, ‘Yo, that's crazy!’ That was such a good call because Pink is not really known for that, but she can deliver that type of record. Her presence can really carry that record to another level.

“So they sent me to Malibu to go record with Pink. I recorded with Pink in Malibu and that was kinda crazy. It was just like, ‘Wow, one of the biggest recording artists in the world is recording on a track I did with Eminem.’ She loved the record. She was like, 'This record is crazy. I've never heard anything like it.'

"So we knocked it out. I remember driving back from Malibu and calling Em. He asked, 'Well, how does it sound?' And I was like, ‘It sounds great. She killed it.’ I sent it to him and he was really happy.”

Dr. Dre f/ Snoop Dogg & Akon “Kush” (2011)

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DJ Khalil: “I had this vocal of Kobe saying, ‘Hold up, wait a minute.’ I had that line and I saved it for like a year because I knew it could be a dope club record for whoever. I remember I was in the studio and I was playing the vocals, and Dre was like, 'Yo, who is that?' I was like, ‘That's Kobe.’ And he was like, 'Yo, that's a hit already.'

"So I just started making the beat around it. We recorded another hook before they put Akon on it, and another singer named Blackthoven did the bridge. So we had a bunch of parts to it and I sent it over to Dre. I still have the text in my phone where Dre was like, 'Yo, this ‘Kush’ beat is incredible!'

"He was really excited about it because he knew it was just a good party record. I'm not really known for [party records], but that was my attempt for Dre. He just wanted a buzz single. So I worked on that for a minute. We tried so many hooks on that. That record went through so many stages.

“We actually sped it up because it was much slower [originally]. But Dre was like, 'We gotta speed the joint up.' I remember Dre invited me to the studio and he was like, 'Yo, I want you to come listen to the record.'

"So I listened to it and he gave me a copy of it. There was just so many things he added to it, I was like, ‘Wow, it doesn't even sound like the record anymore.’ [Laughs.] I was so married to the original one. Dre and I never argue, but I was like, ‘I don't know man about the new hi-hats. I don't know man. Maybe you should give me a shot at mixing it.’

"He gave me a shot at mixing it, but we ended up going with his mix because he knows how to mix for radio. I don't really know how to do that, so I learned a really important lesson: Dr. Dre knows what he's doing. [Laughs.]

”I've been at Aftermath for so long, when Dre first signed me he was already talking about Detox. I was like, ‘Detox? What is that?’ And he was like, 'That's my next album.' There's a lot of stuff they've recorded to. I've worked on a few and I don't even know how many [will make the album] because I'm out of the loop.

"I kinda pop up, give Dre music, and then vanish back into my cave again. That's why I try not to speak on the album, it's not my place. I don't know what he's gonna end up using [on the album], so I don't really wanna speak on that. I don't wanna give some information that might upset anybody, especially Dre.

"I'm from the West Coast and I'm one of Dre’s biggest fans. I own everything Dre's ever done, even his swap meet mixtapes. I have all that stuff. So to actually have his blessing on Detox and to be working with him on his album is insane to me.”

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