Kanye West went on to ghost produce for Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie around the late 90s...D-Dot was the main producer at Bad Boy Records back then, so you can say Kanye was instrumental to a lot of those Bad Boy hits you heard from back in the day. He went on to produce on Foxy Brown's Chyna Doll album (1998), on J.D's Life In 1472 album (1998), 3 tracks on the Harlem World Group album (1999- the group that Mase formed in the late 90s, which had members- Mase's sister, Baby Stase, Loon, Blinky Blinky, Carden, Meeno...), a track on Beanie Sigel's The Truth album (2000). That Beanie Sigel production was what got him producing for Roc-A-Fella Records. He did that for about 3 years, giving Jay-Z hits like, This Can't Be Life (which feat. Beanie Sigel & Scarface), Takeover (the Nas diss record), Izzo (H.O.V.A), Heart Of The City (Ain't No Love), Never Change, Girls, Girls, Girls (remix). I think i should credit Kanye for making me like Jay, cos those were the songs that got me paying attention to Jay-Z...before then, i just saw him as an attention seeking rapper.
All these details is just for people to understand what this rappers go through before getting to the height they are now. All the while, in the 90s and early 00s, Kanye was shopping his demo tape as a rapper to labels, and they all turned him down repeatedly...over and over again, till Damon Dash gave him a chance at Roc-A-Fella. Asides from being a blogger, I am also a life-long student of human potential, and the spiritual side of things. And I can tell you that nothing breeds success like having a definitely purpose in life, backed by persistence and perseverance. Look at all what Kanye West through...yet, some people would come forward and say he got his success cos he signed one paper that got him into the mythical secret society called Illuminati...they wish.
So, let's look at someone else's that is really successful right now, and has been for a while. Eminem, one of the greatest rappers ever, and by far the most successful rapper in the history of Hip Hop was once a dish washer. For many years in the early 90s, he was trying to break into the Hip Hop scene. No one knew who he was when he made his underground debut album, Infinite in 1996. They descredited the album, saying he sounded too much like AZ and Nas. No one knew when he was running around with Royce Da 5'9 (back in the late 90s), and also getting into every rap battle he could find. He released his first studio album, The Slim Shady LP in 1999 when he was 29...after doing drugs, and contemplating suicide countless times.
Okay, let's look at Jay-Z. I was watching the Matin Lawrence Movie (Big Mommas: Like Father Like Son) the other day, and the girl in there said something about Jay-Z not releasing Reasonable Doubt until he was 27. She said it in a bid to convince Martin Lawrence's kid in the movie to take his time, and put his music career on the hold for a while, and finish college first. But, the fact is that, if Jay could have dropped his first album at 20, he would have. Jay-Z has been in the Hip Hop scene since when he was 19, back in 1988...when he was hanging around JaZ-O. He even featured on Jaz-0's 1989 song, Hawaiian Sophie, and was in the video. He went on an overseas tour with Jaz back then, and started working on his own solo material. When nothing jumped off for him, he started hanging around Big Daddy Kane in the early 90s...still nothing. He hit the streets to make a little bread to finance his passion to be a successful rapper. Then he met Damon Dash in 1994...still no label wanted to sign him, till they took matters into their own hands, and formed their own label, Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995, and released Jay-Z's debut the next year...and then in 1997, Def Jam bought a portion of the label. So, he damn sure wasn't sitting on his ass all the time.
And the longer it takes you to make it, the longer you would be a success in what you do. Look at where Jay-Z and Kanye West are today. Okay, let's look at Rick Ross. He was signed to signed to Suave House Records as Teflon The Don back in 2000. Appearing on songs with Eric Sermon, and touring with Trick Daddy back in the days (when he later signed to Slip-N-Slide in 2002. He didn't release his debut album till he was 30 years old, in 2006. Or, you can look at a rapper like 2 Chainz; a couple of people might know that he was once called Tity Boi, and was in a group called Playaz Circle back in the late 00s, but few people know that he had been trying to blow since the early 00s...he even had an independent album released in 2002. He didn't blow up as a solo artist till this year (2012)...he is 36 years old.
As I said, there is no short-cut to success, and the longer it takes you to make it, the bigger the price. Look at a rapper like Lil Wayne- he has lived all his life as a rapper. He signed to Cash Money records in 1995, when he was just 13. He and the rest of the Hot Boyz (Young Turk, B.G and Juvenile) released their first album in 1997 (Get It How You Live!)...and he released his debut in 1999 (Tha Block Is Hot). He went through the rise of Cash Money in the late 90s, to their fall in the early 00s...to the rise again in the mid 00s, of which he was solely responsible for. Now, think about that. He has given 17 years of his life to the music industry...non stop. All the years when no one was checking for Cash Money in the early 00s, he kept releasing albums, till his definiteness of purpose, persistence and perseverance paid off big time. So, next time, when yo want to hate or complain about not liking his style of music right now, know that he as paid his dues.
No comments:
Post a Comment