Last Call

(Aight, let's run it, let's run it)
Yo fuck you, Kanye, first and foremost
For making me do this shit, muh'fucker
Had to throw everybody out the motherfucking room, 'cause they don't fuckin'-

I'd like to propose a toast
I said toast, motherfucker!
La-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la

And I am (here's to the Roc)
And they ask me, they ask me, they ask me, I tell them
(Here's to Roc-A-Fella)
Raise your glasses, your glasses, your glasses to the sky and
(Here's to the Roc)
This is the last call for alcohol, for the
(Mr. Rockefeller)
So get your ass up off the wall

The all around the world Digital Underground Pac
The Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer of the Roc
I take my chain, my 15 seconds of fame
And come back next year with the whole fucking game
Ain't nobody expect Kanye to end up on top
They expected that College Dropout to drop and then flop
Then maybe he'd stop, savin' all the good beats for himself
Roc-A-Fella's only niggas that helped

My money was thinner than Sean Paul's goatee hair
Now Jean Paul Gaultier cologne fill the air, yeah
They say he bougie, he big-headed
Would you please stop talking about how my dick head is
Flow infectious, give me ten seconds
I'll have a buzz bigger than insects in Texas
It's funny how wasn't nobody interested
'Til the night I almost killed myself in Lexus

Now I am (here's to the Roc)
And they ask me, they ask me, they ask me, I tell them
(Here's to Roc-A-Fella)
Raise your glasses, your glasses, your glasses to the sky and
(Here's to the Roc)
This is the last call for alcohol, for the
(Mr. Rockefeller)
So get your ass up off the wall

Now was Kanye the most overlooked? Yes, sir
Now is Kanye the most overbooked? Yes, sir
Though the fans want the feeling of A Tribe Called Quest
But all they got left is this guy called West
That'll take Freeway, throw him on tracks with Mos Def
Call him Kwa-li or Kwe-li, I put him on songs with JAY-Z
I'm the Gap like Banana Republic and Old Navy, and ooh
It come out sweeter than old Sadie

Nice as Bun-B when I met him at the Source awards
Girl, he had with him, ass coulda won the horse awards
And I was almost famous
Now everybody love Kanye, I'm almost Raymond
Some say he arrogant, can y'all blame him?
It was straight embarrassing how y'all played him
Last year shoppin' my demo, I was tryin' to shine
Every motherfucker told me that I couldn't rhyme

Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem
Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams
I use it as my gas, so they say that I'm gassed
But without it I'd be last, so I ought to laugh
So I don't listen to the suits behind the desk no more
You niggas wear suits 'cause you can't dress no more
You can't say shit to Kanye West no more
I rocked 20,000 people, I was just on tour, nigga

I'm Kon, the Louis Vuitton Don
Bought my mom a purse, now she Louis Vuitton Mom
I ain't play the hand I was dealt, I changed my cards
I prayed to the skies and I changed my stars
I went to the malls and I balled too hard
"Oh my god, is that a black card?"
I turned around and replied, "Why, yes
But I prefer the term African American Express"

Brains, power, and muscle
Like Dame, Puffy, and Russell
Your boy back on his hustle
You know what I've been up to
Killin y'all niggas on that lyrical shit
Mayonnaise-colored Benz, I push Miracle Whips

And I am (here's to the Roc)
And they ask me, they ask me, they ask me, I tell them
(Here's to Roc-A-Fella)
Raise your glasses, your glasses, your glasses to the sky and
(Here's to the Roc)
This is the last call for alcohol, for the
(Mr. Rockefeller)
So get your ass up off the wall

So this A&R over at Roc-A-Fella, named Hip Hop, picked the "Truth" beat for Beanie
And I was in the session with him, I had my demo with me, you know, like I always do
I play the songs, he's like "Who that spittin'?", I'm like,"It's me"
He's like, "Oh, okay"
Uh, he started talkin' to me on the phone, going back and forth, just askin' me to send him beats
And I'm thinking he's trying to get into managing producers
'Cause he had this other kid named Just Blaze he was messin' with

And um, he was friends with my mentor, No ID
And No ID told him
"Look, man, if you wanna mess with Kanye you gotta tell him that you like the way he rap"
I was all, I dunno if he was gassin' me or not
But he's like, he wanna manage me as a rapper and a producer
I'm like, "Oh, shit"
I was messin' with, uh, D-Dot also (so won't you raise your glass, won't you?)
People-, like they started talking about the ghost production
But that's how I got in the game, if it weren't for that, I wouldn't be here, so, you know

After they picked that "Truth" beat, I was figuring I was gonna do some more work
But shit just wasn't poppin' off like that, I was stayin' in Chicago
I had my own apartment, I be doin' like
Just, beats for local acts just to try to keep the lights on, and then to go out and buy
Get a Pelle Pelle off lay-away, get some Jordans or something or get a TechnoMarine
That's what we wore back then

I made this one beat where I sped up this Harold Melvin sample
I played it for Hip over the phone, he's like, "Oh, yo, that shit is crazy
Jay might want it for this compilation album he doin', called The Dynasty"
And at that time, like, the drums really weren't soundin' right to me, so I went and, um
I was listening to Dre, Chronic 2001 at that time, and really I just, like, bit the drums off "Xxplosive"
And put it like with a sped-up sample, and now it's kind of like my whole style
Where it started, when he rapped on "This Can't Be Life"
And that was like, really the first beat of that kind that was on The Dynasty album

I could say that was the the resurgence of the soul sound
You know, I got to come in and track the beat, and at the time I was still with my other management
I really wanted to roll with Hip Hop
'Cause I, I just needed some fresh air, you know what I'm sayin' 'cause I-
I been there for a while, I appreciated what they did for me but
You know, there's a time in every man's life where he gotta make a change
And try to move up to the next level

That day, I came and I tracked the beat and I got to meet JAY-Z
And he said, "Oh, you a real soulful dude"
He, uh, played the song 'cause he already spit his verse by the time I got to the studio
You know he do it one-take
He said, "Tell me what you think of this"
And I heard it, and I was thinking like, man
I really wanted more like of the simple type JAY-Z, I ain't want like the-
The more introspective, complicated rhy- or, in my personal opinion
So he asked me, "What you think of it?", and I was like, "Man, that shit tight"
You know what I'm sayin', what I'ma tell him?

I was on the train, man, you know, so
After that, I went back home
And man, I'm-, I'm just in Chicago, I'm trying to do my thing, you know
I got groups, I got acts I'm trying to get on, and like
There wasn't nothin' really, like poppin' off the way it should have been
One of my homies that was one of my artists, he got signed
But it was supposed to really go through my production company
But he ended up going straight with the company

So, like I'm just straight holdin' the phone
Gettin' the bad news that dude was tryin' to leave my company
And I got evicted at the same time
So, I went down and tracked the beats from him
I took that money, came back, packed all my shit up in a U-Haul
Maybe about ten days before I had to actually get out
So I ain't have to deal with the landlord 'cause he's a jerk
Me and my mother drove to... (come on, let's just go)
Newark, New Jersey, I hadn't even seen my apartment

I remember I pulled up (Kanye, baby, we're here)
I unpacked all my shit, you know, we went to Ikea, I bought a bed, I put the bed together myself
I loaded up all my equipment, and the first beat I made was, uh, "Heart of the City"
And Beans was still working on his album at that time, so I came up there to Baseline
It was Beans' birthday, matter of fact, and I played like seven beats, and
You know, I guess he was in the zone, he already had the beats that he wanted
I had did "Nothing Like It" already at that time

But then Jay walked in, I remember he had a Gucci bucket hat on
I remember it like, like it was yesterday
And Hip Hop said, "Yo, play that one beat for him", so I played "Heart of the City"
And really, I made "Heart of the City", I really wanted to give that beat to DMX
Then I played another beat, then I played another beat
And I remember that Gucci bucket, he took it and like put it over his face
And he made one of them faces like, "ooh"

Two days later I'm in Baseline and I seen Dame
Dame didn't know who I was and I was like, "Yo, what's up, I'm Kanye"
(Yo, you that kid, Kanye?)
"You that kid that gave all them beats to Jay? Yo, this nigga got classics to your beats"
(Yo, Jay got classics to your beats) you know how he talkin' shit

I'm like "Oh, shit", and all this time I'm starstruck, man, I'm still thinking 'bout
You know, I'm picturing these niggas on the show, on Streets is Watching or whatever
I'm lookin', these are superstars in my eyes, and they still are, you know
So, Jay came in and he spit all these songs like, in one day, and in two days-
I gotta bring up one thing, you know, to go back in the story

The day I did the 'Can't be Life' beat, I tracked it
I remember Lenny S was there, he had some Louis Vuitton sneakers on, he think he fly
And Hip Hop was there, I think Ty-Ty, John Meneilly, a bunch of people
I didn't know all these people at the time, they was in the room, and I said, "yo, Jay, I could rap"
And I spit this rap that said, uh
"I'm killin' y'all niggas on that lyrical shit, Mayonnaise colored Benz, I push miracle whips"
And I saw his eyes light up when I said that line, but you know the rest
The rap was like real wack and shit, so, that's all the response
He said, "Man, that was tight", and (man, that, that was cool, that was hot)
That was it, you know, I ain't get no deal or nothin'

Okay, fast forward
So, Blueprint, "H to the Izzo," my first hit single
And I just took that proudly, built relationships with people
And my relationship with Kweli, I think, was one of the best things
To ever happen to my career as a rapper
Because, you know, of course, later he allowed me to go on tour with him
Man, you know, I appre-, I love him for that

And at this time, you know I didn't have a deal
I had songs, and I had relationships with all these A&R's, so they wanted beats from me
So they'd call me up, I'd play them some beats
"Gimme a beat that sound like JAY-Z", you know, they dick riders, whatever
So, I'll play them these post-Blueprint beats or whatever and then I'll play my shit
I'll be like, "Yo, but I rap too"
I guess they was lookin' at me crazy 'cause you know, 'cause I ain't have a jersey on or whatever

Everybody out there, listen here, I played them "Jesus Walks" and they didn't sign me
You know what happened, it was some A&R's that fucked with me though, but them like the heads
It'd be somebody at the company that'll say, "Naw", like
Dave Lighty fucked with me, my nigga Mel brought me to a bunch of labels
Jessica Rivera, man (man, ya'll niggas is stupid if y'all don't sign Kanye, for real)
I'm not gonna say nothin' to mess my promotion up (y'all niggas is stupid)
Let's just say I didn't get my deal

The nigga that was behind me, I mean, he wasn't even a nigga, you know?
The person who actually kicked everything off was Joe 3H from Capitol Records
He wanted to sign me really bad (we gonna change the game, buddy)
Dame was like, "Yo, you got a deal with Capitol?
Okay man, just make sure it's not wack" (you gotta make sure it's not wack)

Then one day, I just went ahead and played it, I wanted to play some songs
'Cause you know, Cam was in the room, Young Guru, and Dame was in the room, so I played-
Actually it's a song you'll never hear
Or maybe I might use it, so, it's called "Wow"
"I go to Jacob with 25 thou
You go with 25 hundred, wow
I got 11 plaques on my walls right now
You got your first gold single, damn, nigga, wow"
Like the chorus went like, don't bite that chorus, 'cause I might still use it

So I play that song for him
And he's like "Oh, shit" (oh, shit, it's not even wack)
"I ain't gonna front, it's kinda hot"
(It's actually kinda hot)
Like they still weren't looking at me like a rapper, and I'm sure Dame figured, like
"Man, if he do a whole album, if his raps is wack
At least we can throw Cam on every song and save the album, you know"

So, uh, Dame took me into the office, and he's like "Yo, man, B
B, you don't want a brick, you don't want a brick"
(You don't wanna catch a brick)
"You gotta be under an umbrella, you'll get rained on"
I told Hip Hop, and Hip Hop was all, "Oh, word?"
Actually, even with that
I was still about to take the deal with Capitol 'cause it was already on the table
And 'cause of my relationship with 3H
That, you know, 'cause I told him I was gonna do it, and I'm a man of my word
I was gonna roll with what I said I was gonna do

Then, you know, I'm not gonna name no names
But people told me, "Oh, he's just a producer-rapper", and told 3H that told the heads of the Capitol
And right-, the day I'm talking about, I planned out everything I was gonna do
Man, I, I had picked out clothes, I already started booking studio sessions
I started arranging my album, thinking of marketing schemes, man, I was ready to go
And, and they had Mel call me, they said
"Yo, Capitol pulled on the deal" (yo, Capitol pulled out of the deal)

And, you know I told them that Roc-A-Fella was interested
And I don't know if they thought that was just something I was saying to gas 'em up
To try to push the price up or whatever, I went up
I called G, I said, "Man, you think we could still get that deal with Roc-A-Fella?"

So won't you raise your glass, won't you?
So won't you raise your glass, won't you?
So won't you raise your glass, won't you?
So won't you raise your glass, won't you?