[Produced by Evidence & Kanye West]

[Intro: JAY-Z]
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 fucking--

[Kanye West]
I'd like to propose a toast
I said toast, motherfucker!

[Chorus: Kanye West]
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

[Verse 1: Kanye West]
The all around the world Digital Underground Pac
The Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer of the Roc
I take my chain, my fifteen 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 stop savin' all the good beats for himself
Roc-A-Fella's only n***as that helped
My money was thinner than Sean Paul's goatee hair
Now Jean Paul Gaultier cologne fill the air, here
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
[Chorus: Kanye West]
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

[Verse 2: Kanye West]
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 oooh
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 n***as 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, n***a
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 n***as on that lyrical shit
Mayonnaise-colored Benz, I push Miracle Whips
[Chorus: Kanye West]
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 my n***as
(Mr. Rockefeller)
So get your ass up off the wall

[Outro]
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, well okay."
Uhh, 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

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?

And um, he was friends with my mentor, No ID. And No ID told him, "Look, man, you wanna mess with Kanye you need to tell him that you like the way he rap"

No ID: "Yo, you wanna sign him, tell him you like how he rap"

[Saxophone Solo]
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

[Hiphop: "I'll sign you as a producer and a rapper"]

I'm like oh shit. I was messin' with, uh, D-Dot also. People were like this, started talking about the ghost production but that's how I got in the game. If it wasn'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, when 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 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. Try to move up to the next level. And 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."

[JAY-Z: "Oh you a real soulful dude, man"]

And he, uh, played the song 'cause he already spit his verse by the time I got to the studio. You know how he do it, one take. And he said

[JAY-Z: "Check this out, tell me what you think of this, right here"]

"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 the... in my personal opinion. So he asked me, "What you think of it?"

[JAY-Z: "So what you think of this?"]

And I was like, "Man that shit tight," you know what I'm sayin', man 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...

[Donda West: "Come on, let's just go"]

...Newark, New Jersey. I hadn't even seen my apartment. I remember I pulled up...

[Donda West: "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." And I played "Heart of the City." And really I made "Heart of the City," I really wanted to give that beat to DMX

[Hiphop: "No I think Jay gon' like this one right here"]

And I played another beat, and I played another beat. And I remember that Gucci bucket, he took it and like put it over his face and made one of them faces like 'OOOOOOOOOOH.' 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."

[Dame: "Yo, you that kid, Kanye?"]

"You that kid that gave all them beats to Jay? Yo, this n***a got classics to your beats"

[Dame: "Jay got classics, G."]

You know I ain't 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 n***as on the show, The Streets is Watching, I'm lookin', these were 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, come back to the story, the day I did the 'Can't be Life' beat on track, I remember Lenny S, 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 n***as 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."

[JAY-Z: "That, that was cool. That was hot."]

That was it. You know, I ain't get no deal then, hehe. Okay, fast forward. So, Blueprint, "H to the Izzo," my first hit single. And I just took that proudly, built relationships with people. My relationship with Kweli I think was one of the best ones 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, 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, and 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." Hey, 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 then like the heads, it'd be somebody at the company that'll say, "Naw." Like, Dave Lighty fucked with me, my n***a Mel brought me to a bunch of labels. Jessica Rivera, man...

[Jessica: "Man, you n***as is stupid if y'all don't sign Kanye, for real."]

I'm not gonna say nothin' to mess my promotion up

["Y'all n***as is stupid"]

Let's just say I didn't get my deal. The n***a that was behind me, I mean, he wasn't even a n***a, you know? The person who actually kicked everything off was Joe 3H from Capitol Records. He wanted to sign me really bad

[Joe: "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."

[Dame: "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 that you'll never hear, but 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, n***a, wow."

Like the chorus went. Don't bite that chorus, I might still use it. So I play that song for him and he's like "oh shit"

[Dame: "Oh shit it's not even wack."]

"I ain't gonna front, it's kinda hot."

[Dame: "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"

[Dame: "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 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 they had Mel call me, they said, "yo... Capitol pulled on the deal"

[Mel: "Yo, Capitol pulled out on 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 them 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?