![]() ![]() Days later, Hov returned home for HOT 97’s annual Summer Jam concert, which he headlined over red-hot radio residents like Destiny’s Child, Ludacris, Eve, OutKast, and Nelly, who all joined him on the bill. In the month of June, the imminent classics Jay cut over Kanye’s beat tape were ready for an audience.įirst, it was “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” debuted at the first annual BET Awards in Las Vegas. “Two weeks later, the Blueprint was finished,” Kanye recalled to MTV News. ![]() Kanye’s beat tape was the foundation for it all, with an eventual feature from Eminem and slew of beats Just Blaze had been sitting on “for years” filling out the track list. Prior to “Izzo” catching Jay’s ear, a meeting with Michael Jackson set the stage for conversations with Quincy Jones, giving Hov the inspiration to make a classic album loaded with ‘all the hottest music on it.’ Something special and nostalgic was exactly what Jay-Z was looking for. “All the albums were special, but with him and throughout the team, we felt that it was something special that doesn’t happen often.” “He had embarked on something that was equivalent to the feel and nostalgia of what Reasonable Doubt was,” said Lenny S on that time. Kanye’s loaded beat tape also had instrumentals for “You Don’t Know My Name” that went to Alicia Keys and “Stand Up” for Ludacris, both singles that led Grammy-nominated albums.Īround the Roc-A-Fella team, it was clear the Kanye beat tape was taking Jay to another level. Jay’s two-day session spawned more than half of The Blueprint with four tracks coming off Kanye production. “I said, ‘Mom, we about to make it! We really going to make it this time!’“ “I went to the bathroom and I called my mom,” Kanye recalled to MTV News on the infamous “Izzo” session. In less than 48 hours, Jay-Z had the song of the summer and Mr. In two days, Jay laid down lyrics for seven songs including “Never Change,” “Heart Of The City (Ain’t No Love),” and “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” with the latter lending itself to a Jackson 5 sample set beneath a hook built on E-40’s bespoke ebonics. The beat tape changed hands, with West playing Jay Z joint after joint to thizz face reactions. Not only was he there to play Beanie some beats, but it happened to be March 6: He was there to wish him a happy birthday.Īlready landing “Nothing Like It” as The Reason‘s opener, Beans left to celebrate turning 27 as the doors at Baseline Studio opened up with Kanye’s manager, Gee Roberson, arriving next to a Gucci bucket hat-clad Jay-Z. The Beat TapeĪs the story goes, Kanye West moved to Newark, New Jersey with nothing but an eviction and a bed from Ikea to his name.Ĭatching public transit from his new apartment, the Chicago transplant packed a tape full of tracks built off soul samples, hoping to catch Beanie Sigel’s ear as the Philly rapper worked on his upcoming album, The Reason. ![]() “But there were times where he locked in for an album.”įor his sixth studio album, The Blueprint, it was time for the always-in-the-conversation MC to claim his city, his market, and his throne.īut to do so, the 31-year-old phenom needed a new sound. “Jay is an artist who was consistently working on music,” Roc Nation A&R Lenny Santiago, a.k.a. In the spring of 2001, Jay-Z was at war with rappers, lawyers, and the summer.Ĭatching strays from Queensbridge and cases at the Kit Kat Club, Brooklyn’s finest was feeling the heat from all angles as the season he held down for six years straight quickly approached. As Jay Z’s timeless album turns 20, we look back at the album’s unprecedented inception, larger-than-life rollout, and unforgettable drop date.
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