Let’s talk about “Trapeze.”
I think that was something that was sittin’ in the cut that I had in the stash and just thought it was some raw s—t, and once I cooked it up I said, “I gotta send this to Errol.” And after I sent it off, he just went to town on that motherf—ker.
Did you already have it mind for this project?
I don’t know if I necessarily had it for this one, but it was definitely in the pipeline. Like this is gonna be one of the joints on whatever’s next.
I was into the Todd Snyder reference for the haberdashers and Errol’s Buster Brown and Florsheim mentions. That’s where people of a certain age used to go cop their church shoes back in the day.
Old New York s—t like Fayva and Thom McAn.
Errol, can you give us some insight on your verse on there?
E.H.: I started off with, “Smooth ride up the West Side, talking to my man in the FCI, he gotta phone/ Soon as I hang up with him, I get a FaceTime from Tone.” I mean, you know, that’s real life. I was talking to my man in that’s in the federal penitentiary and soon as I hung up, my man Tone called me. He was sitting in the Autobiography Range Rover while we were talking, and then it goes off into a bunch of other stuff. I believe, on that one right there, you sent me the beat. I did my verse first.
Yeah, I was gonna ask, was this an older verse? Was this something that you wrote to the beat?
E.H.: Yeah, I wrote that to the beat and then I think he had came to New York. When we was in the studio, he heard it and he said, “Yo, send me that.” And the we didn’t talk about it for a while, and then maybe a couple of months later, he kept saying, “Yo, send me the joint.” I couldn’t remember exactly what he was referring to, and he was like, “The one where you say you autographed the project stove.”
Also, Roc, I feel like you’re not underrated anymore — you were for a little bit — but I liked the line where you said, “If we rating thе pen, if I ain’t top 10, the list was created by atheists.” I feel like you wanted to show people that you’re top five, top 10 — because after it dropped you were tweeting and talking s—t, which you don’t really do.
Yeah, I’m one of them guys. I’m pound-for-pound.
As a producer and a rapper?
E.H.: Who’s a better producer/rapper? And I’m asking.
Well, I’m biased, because — and he knows this already — but since 2010, Roc has been my personal favorite.
I model myself after guys like Q-Tip, Large Professor. Those are the guys I modeled myself after.
E.H.: In all fairness, and I don’t how much of his own production he does, but Jay Electronica comes to mind. I think Roc and Ka are neck and neck, though.
