Analysis
Kanye West met No I.D. when he was around 14 through connection by their mothers. Kanye would always seek guidance from No I.D. and would go through get lengths to do so such as showing up at his No I.D's window. After a
failed meeting with Columbia Records No I.D. stopped managing Kanye which only fueled his drive to succeed more.
Transcript
*This transcript was initially generated with AI but is modifiable by users
Kanye West: America, y'all had to see me. Yeah, I had to get used to this face. Don't ain't that what everybody say? Delete that. If you get used to me and you don't see them next year...Interviewer: How did you and Kanye West's relationship happen?No I.D.: That was my mom and his mom—they really knew each other. My mom's a teacher, his mom was a teacher. So, you know, she comes home like, "Hey, can you help? I have a friend. Can you help her son?"Interviewer: How much older are you than Kanye?No I.D.: Yeah, he's like 14 when that happened.No I.D.: So back then, I started making beats and my beats started getting nice. My mother came home one day and she was like, "Yo, you ever heard of Common Sense?" I was like, "Yeah, I heard of Common Sense. He got a song called 'Take It Easy' on the radio right now. He cold, right?" She's like, "Well, I know a friend of mine said her son produces for him." I was like, "Oh, word." And then she's like, "Yeah, I'll give you his number. His name is Dion."No I.D.: So I went over his crib, and I remember walking in there. It's like walking in Def Jam, like walking into Kevin's office or something. That's the closest you could possibly get to the industry because they actually had something that you heard on the radio, and it was dope, you know what I'm saying.Interviewer: So he's like 14 when that happened?No I.D.: Yeah, and it's just all over the place. He's an annoying 14-year-old kid, absolutely.Interviewer: He was rapping at the time? Or he wanted to produce at that time?No I.D.: He was rapping. He just wanted to make it in music. So he had his demos, he's playing them. And he's making like beats on his little computer. He didn't really know what the sampling is about or whatever.Kanye West: I had my computer and I was trying to draw on it, and then I got a sound program—like somebody bootlegged a copy of the disc with me for the sound program. I found myself just wanting to work on that all the time. Then I found myself like running home from school because I had an idea, like looking at the clock, looking at 2:30 like, "Yo man, I want to get this beat down."Kanye West: But I didn't even know anything about sampling. I was 14 years old. I went to Chuck Levens out in Maryland and they told me, "Yo, people that do the type of music you do, they sample." I had no idea. I'd just be trying to... I didn't know why my stuff didn't sound exactly like the stuff on the radio then.Kanye West: But the sampler was like $2,000, and for somebody who's 14 years old only getting allowance, that was like $8 million.No I.D.: He just wanted to make it in music. So he had his demos, he's playing them. And he's making like beats on his little computer. He didn't really know what the sampling is about or whatever.No I.D.: So I just sent him on missions like, "Look man, here's how you sample. Go do that and come back." And he just kept coming back, and I just started running out of missions to send him on. Really, that's the truth. I wasn't thinking like, "Oh, this is about to be Kanye West and I'm going to mentor him and make it." It's a kid. It's a favor for your mom. And he's back again. He actually did the job.Kanye West: I remember Dion was like, "Yo, I'll give you some tips on sampling." He had an SP-1200. I never seen none of the real equipment. He showed me how to sample records. He said, "What you do to save on sample time is you speed them up." Thus is the style that we're using that everybody is using right now with the sped-up samples.Kanye West: So I used to be sweating—I mean bugging him, trying to word myself with the least amount of profanity as possible—bugging him to death. And you know, he changed his numbers about 100 times on me, but I always figured out how to get him. I'd be knocking on his window while he with his girl.No I.D.: Really, that's the truth. I wasn't thinking like, "Oh, this is about to be Kanye West and I'm going to mentor him and make it." It's a kid. It's a favor for your mom. And he's back again. He actually did the job.Interviewer: Was he very confident even at that age?No I.D.: A hundred percent. He knew he'd make it. A hundred percent. It couldn't—there was no other version of the story.Kanye West: So then I had to go out on my own at that point. He taught me a lot, but I had to take it upon myself to just listen to the music that was out there and try to get my music as good as that. But all along, I'm always rapping. I had groups, and I was always the weakest rapper out of the people in the group, you know what I'm saying. It'll always be like somebody who really had it, but they just, they had a passion for it.Kanye West: But I—every night I was working, every night. I just like... it wasn't nothing that was gonna stop me. Like people would look up and be like, "Yo, I just heard of Kanye," like I've been doing this since... Really like, yo, telling my teachers like, "Man, I might not even have to turn in my homework this year because I'm going to be signed this year," you know what I'm saying, back in seventh grade.No I.D.: He knew he'd make it. A hundred percent. It couldn't—there was no other version of the story.No I.D.: I mean, you know, there's a... I remember one time he, um... we brought him out to meet with Columbia, and they wanted to sign him. This is a little later. And the short version is, the meeting just goes bad because Kanye was Kanye, because he was in full mode, right?No I.D.: And I remember coming home and I was like, "You know what? I don't think I should manage you. I think you should do your own thing. I'ma help you, but I don't... This probably don't fit me."Interviewer: And how did he take it?No I.D.: That's the one time I saw him look like, "Wait a minute. I came to the meeting in the limo. I left in the taxi. What am I going to do now?" And... but that was fuel. If you know him, that was fuel.Kanye West: Since... Really like, yo, telling my teachers like, "Man, I might not even have to turn in my homework this year because I'm going to be signed this year," you know what I'm saying, back in seventh grade. I mean, I told my gym teacher freshman year like, "Man, I ain't coming to gym class no more. I'm gonna be signing." She gonna come to me senior year like, "Yo, what's up with that record deal?"*There may be errors on this page.