Jay was interviewed on CNN’s “The Music Room” and here are some highlights of what he had to say:
Blueprint 2’s “special moment:”
I’d have to say that doing “A Dream” was one of the most special times because, you know, BIG was a friend of mine. I wasn’t originally going to use his verse for “Dream.” I was just going to use the sample “it was all the dream,” but then I started singing his verse over it and then I was like “that sounds good.” So I called Puff and said send the reels over for me. He sent those over and then I called Faith. When Faith came to the studio she brought BIG and her’s son. So that whole vibe with that whole song was serious.
Working with Beyonce:
Anytime you get the chance to get in the room and work with somebody who’s a talent like that is a beautiful thing. I try to work with the most credible people, you know? She writes her own songs and things like that, she knows what she wants to hear. It was a great experience.
His rivalry with Nas:
What people gotta understand is rap is based off … it’s a competitive sport, you know what I’m saying? That’s how it came up. It came up with the battle — people going outside plugging their music in the lamppost, and then the other guy going down the street and plugging his music in the lamppost. And whoever got better music on had the biggest crowd. That’s just the history of rap music, you know what I’m saying? So it’s basically just about the music, and it’s about competitive rivalry.
