Lyrics:

[00:00.00][Jay-Z]
[00:03.46]Yo fuck you, Kanye, first and foremost
[00:06.15]For making me do this shit, motherfucker
[00:10.35]Had to throw everybody out the motherfucking room
[00:12.16]'Cause they don't fucking..
[00:13.07]
[00:13.33][Kanye West]
[00:13.45]I'd like to propose a toast
[00:15.60]I said toast, motherfucker
[00:18.13]La la la la, la la la la la la la
[00:23.63]La la la la, la la la la la la la
[00:27.70]And I am
[00:28.59](Here's to the Roc)
[00:30.27]And they ask me, they ask me, they ask me, I tell them
[00:34.31](Here's to Rocafella)
[00:35.64]Raise your glasses, your glasses, your glasses to the sky
[00:39.51](Here's to the Roc)
[00:41.01]This is the last call for alcohol, for the
[00:44.94](Here's to Rocafella)
[00:46.68]So get your ass up off the wall
[00:49.44]The all around the world Digital Underground, Pac
[00:52.32]The Rudloph the red nosed reindeer of the Roc
[00:55.24]I take my chain, my 15 seconds of fame
[00:57.86]And come back next year with the whole fucking game
[01:00.90]Ain't nobody expect Kanye to end up on top
[01:03.28]They expected that College Dropout to drop and then flop
[01:06.05]Then maybe he stop saving all the good beats for himself
[01:09.36]Rocafella's only niggas that help
[01:11.41]My money was thinner than Sean Paul's goatee hair
[01:14.15]Now Jean Paul Gaultier cologne fill the air, yeah
[01:17.54]They say he bourgie, he big-headed
[01:19.63]Won't you please stop talking about how my dick head is?
[01:22.39]Flow infectious, give me 10 seconds
[01:25.06]I'll have a buzz bigger than insects in Texas
[01:27.89]It's funny how wasn't nobody interested
[01:30.58]'Til the night I almost killed myself in Lexus
[01:33.58]Now I am
[01:33.97](Here's to the Roc)
[01:36.02]And they ask me, they ask me, they ask me, I tell them
[01:39.73](Here's to Rocafella)
[01:41.41]Raise your glasses, your glasses, your glasses to the sky
[01:45.16](Here's to the Roc)
[01:46.81]This is the last call for alcohol, for the
[01:50.67](Here's to Rocafella)
[01:52.30]So get your ass up off the wall
[01:55.24]Now was Kanye the most overlooked? Yes sir
[01:58.07]Now is Kanye the most overbooked? Yes sir
[02:00.78]Though the fans want the feeling of A Tribe Called Quest
[02:03.42]But all they got left is this guy called West
[02:06.21]Better take Freeway, throw him on tracks with Mos Def
[02:08.95]Whether you call him Kwa-lI or Kwe-li, I put him on songs with Jay-Z
[02:11.61]I'm the Gap like Banana Republic and Old Navy, and ooh
[02:15.39]It come out sweeter than old Sadie
[02:17.45]Nice as Bun B when I met him at the Source awards
[02:20.19]Girl he had with him, ass could've won the horse awards
[02:23.94]And I was almost famous
[02:25.29]Now everybody loves Kanye, I'm almost Raymond
[02:28.10]Some say he arrogant, can y'all blame him?
[02:30.86]It was straight embarrassing how y'all played him
[02:33.51]Last year shopping my demo, I was trying to shine
[02:36.23]Every motherfucker told me that I couldn't rhyme
[02:39.01]Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem
[02:41.63]Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams
[02:44.48]I use it as my gas, so they say that I'm gassed
[02:47.17]But without it I'd be last, so I ought to laugh
[02:49.93]So I don't listen to the suits behind the desk no more
[02:52.56]You niggas wear suits 'cause you can't dress no more
[02:55.30]You can't say shit to Kanye West no more
[02:58.04]I rocked 20,000 people, I was just on tour, nigga
[03:01.35]I'm Kan, the Louis Vuitton Don
[03:03.59]Bought my mom a purse, now she Louis Vuitton Mom
[03:06.40]I ain't play the hand I was dealt, I changed my cards
[03:09.02]I prayed to the skies and I changed my stars
[03:11.91]I went to the malls and I balled too hard
[03:14.86]'Oh my god, is that a Black Card?'
[03:17.80]I turned around and replied, why yes
[03:19.96]But I prefer the term African American Express
[03:22.97]Brains, power, and muscle, like Dame, Puffy, and Russell
[03:25.46]Your boy back on his hustle, you know what I've been up to
[03:28.28]Killin y'all niggas on that lyrical shit
[03:30.89]Mayonnaise colored Benz, I push Miracle Whips
[03:33.46]And I am
[03:34.54](Here's to the Roc)
[03:36.11]And they ask me, they ask me, they ask me, I tell them
[03:40.04](Here's to Rocafella)
[03:41.67]Raise your glasses, your glasses, your glasses to the sky
[03:45.46](Here's to the Roc)
[03:47.09]This is the last call for alcohol, for my niggas
[03:51.04](Here's to Rocafella)
[03:52.53]So get your ass up off the wall
[03:55.83]So this A&R over at Rocafella, named Hiphop
[03:58.91]Picked the Truth beat for Beanie
[04:00.60]And I was in the session with him
[04:01.56]I had my demo with me you know, like I always do
[04:04.02]I play the songs, he's like 'Who that spitting?'
[04:05.70]I'm like 'it's me,' He's like 'oh, well okay.'
[04:08.53]Uhh, he started talkin to me on the phone
[04:10.65]Going back and forth, just asking me to send him beats
[04:12.98]And I'm thinking he's trying to get into managing producers
[04:15.25]Cause he had this other kid named Just Blaze he was messing with
[04:18.43]And um, he was friends with my mentor, No ID
[04:21.48]And No ID told him, 'look man, you wanna mess with Kanye
[04:23.91]You need to tell him that you like the way he rap'
[04:24.45][No ID] 'Yo, you wanna sign him, tell him you like how he rap'
[04:26.73]I was all, I don't know if he was gassing me or not
[04:28.36]But he's like he want to manage me as a rapper AND a producer
[04:30.02][Hiphop] I'll sign you as a producer and a rapper
[04:31.96]I'm like oh shit, I was messin with, uh, D-Dot also
[04:34.50]People, like this, started talking about the Ghost production
[04:36.76]But that's how I got in the game, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be here
[04:39.85]So you know, after they picked that Truth beat
[04:42.03]I was figuring I was gonna do some more work
[04:44.62]But shit just went popping off like that. I was staying in Chicago
[04:47.43]I had my own apartment, I be doing like, just beats for local acts
[04:51.31]Just to try to keep the lights on, and then to go out and buy
[04:53.92]Get a Pelle Pelle off lay-away, get some Jordans or something
[04:56.99]Or get a TechnoMarine, that's what we wore back then
[05:00.68]I made this one beat where I sped up this Hal Melville sample
[05:05.11]I played it for Hip over the phone, he's like 'oh, yo that shit is crazy
[05:08.33]Jay might want it for this compilation album he doing, called The Dynasty'
[05:12.47]And at that time, like the drums really weren't sounding right to me
[05:14.97]So I went and um, I was listening to Dre Chronic 2001 at that time
[05:19.33]And really I just, like bit the drums off Xxplosive and put it like
[05:23.32]With a sped up, sampled, and now it's kind of like my whole style
[05:27.50]When it started, when he rapped on 'This Can't be Life.'
[05:29.59]And that was like, really the first beat of that kind that was on the Dynasty album
[05:33.88]I could say that was the, the resurgence of this whole sound
[05:37.50]You know, I got to come in and track the beat, and at the time
[05:39.95]I was still with my other management
[05:41.44]I really wanted to roll with Hiphop, cause I
[05:43.62]I just needed some fresh air, you know what I'm saying
[05:45.34]Cause I been there for a while, I appreciated what they did for me, but
[05:49.17]You know there's a time in every man's life
[05:51.33]Where he got to make a change, try to move up to the next level
[05:54.66]That day I came and I tracked the beat
[05:56.35]And I got to meet Jay-Z and he said, 'oh you a real soulful dude'
[05:58.17][Jay-Z] You a real soulful dude
[05:59.35]He uh, played the song 'cause he already spit his verse
[06:01.96]By the time I got to the studio, you know how he do it, one take
[06:04.64]And he said
[06:05.18][Jay-Z] Check this out, tell me what you think of this, right here
[06:07.13]And I heard it, and I was thinking like, man
[06:09.94]I really wanted more like of the simple type Jay-Z
[06:12.18]I ain't want like the, the more introspective, complicated rhy-
[06:15.48]Or the, in my personal opinion
[06:16.86]So he asked me, 'what you think of it?'
[06:18.44][Jay-Z] So what you think of it?
[06:18.96]And I was like, 'man that shit tight' you know what I'm sayin'
[06:20.50]Man what I'ma tell him? I was on the train man, you know
[06:22.88]So after that I went back home, and man I'm
[06:26.23]I'm just in Chicago, I'm trying to do my thing
[06:28.03]You know, I got groups, I got acts I'm trying to get on
[06:30.59]And like there wasn't nothing really like
[06:33.49]Popping off the way it should have been
[06:35.79]One of my homies that was one of my artists, he got signed
[06:40.00]But it was supposed to really go through my production company
[06:42.20]But he ended up going straight with the company
[06:44.97]So, like I'm just straight holding the phone, getting the bad news
[06:47.77]That dude was trying to leave my company
[06:49.96]And I got evicted at the same time
[06:52.48]So I went down and tracked the beats from him
[06:55.75]I took that money, came back, packed all my shit up in a U-Haul
[06:59.62]Maybe about ten days before I had to actually get out
[07:02.71]So I ain't have to deal with the landlord 'cause he's a jerk
[07:05.35]Me and my mother drove to Newark, New Jersey
[07:07.65][Mother] Come on, let's just go
[07:08.32]I hadn't even seen my apartment, I remember I pulled up
[07:11.75][Mother] Kanye, baby, we're here
[07:12.83]I unpacked all my shit, you know, we went to Ikea
[07:14.24]I bought a bed, I put the bed together myself
[07:16.83]I loaded up all my equipment, and the first beat I made
[07:20.70]Was uh, 'Heart of the City' and Beans was still working
[07:23.77]On his album at that time, so I came up there to Baseline
[07:26.39]It was Beans' birthday, matter of fact, and I played like seven beats
[07:29.44]And, you know I could see he's in the zone
[07:32.20]He already had the beats that he wanted
[07:33.51]I did nothing like already at that time
[07:36.24]But then Jay walked in, I remember he had a GuccI bucket hat on
[07:39.63]I remember it like, like it was yesterday
[07:41.87]And Hiphop said 'yo play that one beat for him'
[07:44.48]And I played 'Heart of the City'
[07:46.35]And really I made 'Heart of the City'
[07:47.42]I really wanted to give that beat to DMX
[07:48.96][Hiphop] No I think Jay gon' like this one right here
[07:50.01]And I played another beat, and I played another beat
[07:51.25]And I remember that GuccI bucket, he took it and like
[07:53.55]Put it over his face and made one of them faces like 'oooh!!!'
[07:57.76]Two days later I'm in Baseline and I seen Dame
[08:00.28]Dame didn't know who I was and I was like 'yo what's up I'm Kanye.'
[08:02.54][Dame Dash] Yo, you that kid, Kanye?
[08:03.66]You that kid that gave all them beats to Jay?
[08:04.98]Yo, this nigga got classics, Jay got classics, G.'
[08:07.49]You know I ain't talkin shit, I'm like 'oh shit.'
[08:10.89]And all this time I'm starstruck, man. I'm still thinking 'bout
[08:13.42]You know I'm picturing these niggas on the show
[08:15.69]The Streets is Watching, I'm looking
[08:17.48]These were superstars in my eyes and they still are, you know
[08:20.26]So, Jay came in and he spit all these songs like in one day
[08:26.53]And in two days, I gotta bring up one thing, you know
[08:29.41]Go back in the story, the day I did the 'Can't be Life' beat on track
[08:32.07]I remember Lenny S, he had some Louis Vuitton sneakers on
[08:35.23]He think he fly and Hiphop was there
[08:37.79]I think Tata, John Minnelli, a bunch of people
[08:40.07]I didn't know all these people at the time they was in the room
[08:42.22]And I said, 'yo Jay I could rap,' and I spit this rap that said
[08:45.57]Uh 'I'm killing y'all niggas on that lyrical shit
[08:47.84]Mayonnaise colored Benz, I push miracle whips'
[08:50.06]And I saw his eyes light up when I said that line
[08:52.14]But you know the rest, the rap was like real wack and shit
[08:55.11]So that's all the response, he said 'man that was tight'
[08:57.78][Jay-Z] That, that was cool, that was hot
[08:59.03]That was it, you know, I ain't get no deal then, hehe
[09:01.17]Okay, fast forward, so, Blueprint, H to the Izzo, my first hit single
[09:07.96]And I just took that proudly, built relationships with people
[09:11.51]My relationship with KwelI I think was one of the best thing
[09:13.83]To ever happen to my career as a rapper
[09:16.60]Because, you know, of course later
[09:18.25]He allowed me to go on tour with him
[09:20.52]Man, I appre-- I love him for that, and at this time
[09:26.75]You know I didn't have a deal
[09:27.87]I had songs, and I had relationships
[09:29.84]With all these A&R's, and they wanted beats from me
[09:31.58]So they'd call me up, I'd play them some beats
[09:33.12]'Gimme a beat that sound like Jay-Z'
[09:35.00]You know, they dick riders, whatever
[09:36.26]So I'll play them these post-Blueprint beats or whatever
[09:39.49]And then I'll play my shit. I'll be like, 'yo but I rap too'
[09:41.94]Hey, I guess they was looking at me crazy 'cause you know
[09:44.98]'Cause I ain't have a jersey on or whatever
[09:47.23]Everybody out there listen here, I played them 'Jesus Walks'
[09:49.84]And they didn't sign me, you know what happened
[09:52.24]It was some A&R's that fucked with me though, but then like the heads
[09:55.25]It'd be somebody at the company that'll say 'nah'
[09:57.42]Like, Dave Lotti fucked with me, my nigga Mel
[10:00.05]Brought me to a bunch of labels, Jessica Rivera, man
[10:03.25][Jessica] Man, you niggas stupid if y'all don't sign Kanye, for real
[10:07.51]I'm not gonna say nothing to mess my promotion up
[10:09.62]'Y'all niggas is stupid,' let's just say I didn't get my deal
[10:12.92]The nigga that was behind me, I mean
[10:14.67]He wasn't even a nigga
[10:16.47]The person who actually kicked everything off
[10:18.67]Was Joe 3H from Capitol Records
[10:20.66]He wanted to sign me really bad
[10:22.34][Joe] We gonna change the game, buddy
[10:23.47]Dame was like, 'yo you got a deal with Capitol
[10:25.14]Okay man, just make sure it's not wack'
[10:27.02][Dame Dash] You got to make sure it's not wack
[10:28.02]Then one day I just went ahead and played it
[10:29.06]I wanted to play some songs, 'cause you know
[10:31.04]Cam was in the room, Young Guru, and Dame was in the room
[10:34.53]So I played, actually it's a song that you'll never hear
[10:38.60]But maybe I might use it, so, it's called 'Wow'
[10:40.39]'I go to Jacob with 25 thou, you go with 25 hundred, wow
[10:45.18]I got eleven plaques on my walls right now
[10:47.71]You got your first gold single, damn, nigga, wow.'
[10:50.66]Like the chorus went, don't bite that chorus, I might still use it
[10:53.28]So I play that song for him, and he's like 'oh shit'
[10:56.04][Dame] Oh shit it's not even wack
[10:58.89]'I ain't gonna front, It's kinda hot
[11:00.70][Dame] It's actually kinda hot
[11:01.12]Like they still weren't looking at me like a rapper
[11:03.04]And I'm sure Dame figured, 'like man. If he do a whole album
[11:06.35]If his raps is wack at least we can throw Cam on every song
[11:08.52]And save the album, you know
[11:11.59]So uh Dame took me into the office, and he's like
[11:14.23]'Yo man, we, we on a brick, we on a brick'
[11:15.34][Dame Dash] You don't wanna catch a brick
[11:16.96]You got to be under an umbrella, you'll get rained on
[11:20.08]I told Hiphop and Hiphop was all, 'oh, word?'
[11:22.55]Actually, even with that I was still about to take
[11:27.49]The deal with Capitol 'cause it was already on the table
[11:29.87]And 'cause of my relationship with 3H
[11:31.44]That, you know, 'cause I told him I was gonna do it
[11:33.39]And I'm a man of my word, I was gonna roll with
[11:34.85]What I said I was gonna do
[11:36.60]Then, you know, I'm not gonna name no names
[11:40.60]But people told me, 'oh he's just a producer rapper'
[11:43.18]And told 3H that told the heads of the Capitol
[11:45.61]And right the day I'm talking about
[11:47.42]I planned out everything I was gonna do, man
[11:49.90]I had picked out clothes
[11:52.01]I already started booking studio sessions
[11:53.90]I started arranging my album, thinking of marketing schemes
[11:56.64]Man I was ready to go, and they had Mel call me, they said
[11:59.74]'Yo... Capitol pulled on the deal'
[12:03.58][Mel] Yo, Capitol pulled out on the deal
[12:05.11]And, you know I told them that Rocafella was interested and
[12:08.06]I don't know if they thought that was just something I was saying
[12:09.86]To gas them up to try to push the price up or whatever
[12:12.48]I went up, I called G, I said
[12:16.04]'Man, you think we could still get that deal with Rocafella?'
[12:19.08]So won't you raise your glass, won't you
[12:23.95]So won't you raise your glass, won't you
[12:29.72]So won't you raise your glass, won't you
[12:34.87]So won't you raise your glass, won't you