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West: If I told you back in '98, "Yeah n---a! We gonna be on MTV doing interviews with Puff!" you wouldn't have believed it.
MTV: So tell me how this all came together.
P. Diddy: It's really like a dream come true for me to be working with him. As a producer, it's really hard to find somebody that you can trust yourself to be produced by, so it's like the ultimate respect for a producer to call on another producer. I knew that he was focusing on his label and everything and he wasn't really doing a lot of outside work, [but] I called him [because] I wanted to really make sure, for my last album, that it's one of the best. I was interested in being produced and taken to another level — a place that maybe I'm not thinking about. But I knew that at least it was with somebody that I respect, admire and love what he's bringing to the game.
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"It's really like a dream come true for me to be working with him." - P. Diddy
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So I called him up, saw him a couple of times, and we had meetings. It wasn't just no passing-by thing — we had serious meetings, talked creatively. This is my fourth day in the studio and it's been incredible to see him work. I call him boy genius, little Quincy Jones. It's like this is what he was born to do; God put him here to do this. I've been blown away. I've been producing for a minute, and I know that he is definitely the next generation: a hitmaker.
West: I told him: This is a job that I had to come and do. I used to dress like this n---a. I used to study his albums and I'll try to program like them, play strings like them, find samples like them. But little did I know that he had about eight people [producing]. So when I come in and play my beats they say, "Man, that sounds really finished." I was like, "It's not supposed to sound like that?" So now I'm basically in the studio because I didn't know that you were supposed to have a string player and all that. It's not like I'm trying to bring him into my world, but a piece of my world is his world because I'm like a distant protégé of his.
P. Diddy: It's a blessing for me to be doing this, and to know that you've inspired somebody that also inspires you. That's really why I'm here, because I respect what he's doing. When I produce, I have a team and I orchestrate it; I don't think he knew that was what I was doing. And for him being able to do all of that is a lot. And for me to see it — seeing is believing — he's making like four or five songs a day.
West: Yeah, I guess he's used to people taking longer to make beats. I'm trying to explain to him, "Dawg, that's how I do." What I do is I get in the studio and I watch TV or play video games for about two or three hours and then I'll listen to samples in the back and find one that I want. I'm gonna give y'all one of my tricks right here. I'll have eight samples playing at the same time. I take the one I like the most, [then] I find some ill drums and program them and get the basic idea, the beat up and flowing. And once I get that I just turn it up loud and I just go back to talking sh--.
MTV: You guys have a tendency to talk a lot, but you always deliver.
West: Don't you love it, though? What happened to the Muhammed Alis and the rock stars in the game? What's up with all this like [tilts head down, mumbles], "Thank you very much"? Dawg, I came from nothing. Right now, I'm sitting next to Puff on MTV. I'm gonna go home and call somebody: "Dawg, do you know what I just did?"
P. Diddy: As you can see, we are having a good time. Our personalities kinda match.
MTV: Are you feeling comfortable with the album's progress so far?
P. Diddy: Yeah. To be honest, you don't go into it like you're in search of something — like you know what you're going to do. You're trying to find that masterpiece, that rhythm. [I've been] doing it for so long, going on for like 12 joints, 12 years. The reason why this is my last album is I don't want to overstay my welcome. Of course I'm gonna still be doing music, but as an artist, I wanted to make sure that I was looking extremely pretty: that I can still dance my ass off, that I wasn't stiff, that when I go up and accept my awards that I still have that gleam and that shine. I feel like right now is my time. If it don't come out where it's 12 undeniable joints, I probably will have another interview with you telling you that I decided not to do it.
MTV: Kanye, what kind of tracks are you giving Puffy to work with?
West: Man, everything. From slow flow to uplifting to stuff that feels good for your soul, to joints where you just hear the melody and you scrunch your face up. Everything that I give them is stuff that people can just pull up and find it at a club. I'm not giving them no guilty pleasure songs — like when you have 'NSYNC in your iPod but when somebody else is in the car you play some Jay-Z or something. You can play this stuff no matter who's in the car.
MTV: How do you decide which tracks go to other people instead of yourself?
West: At the end of the day, I feel that's one of the reasons God spared my life [after West's 2002 car accident] — to allow his blessing to flow through me. I'm just a vessel. When I go in to work on a beat, it's my responsibility and if someone gets a great record that can change their life, that can make things happen for them — it's all in God's plan. If I go and for some reason it doesn't work or this sample doesn't work — that's not what God wanted for them. I'm here to provide blessings through my music. So, I can't be selfish with that, because he blesses me in return regardless.
P. Diddy: I just get a couple of days, y'all! That's part of the deal. He's heavily in the studio and to be honest, the way he pumps out heat, he got enough heat for everybody.
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Photo: MTV News
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