Last Call - Ye

Lyrics by：Kanye West/Tony Williams/M. Peretta/Kenneth Lewis

Composed by：Kanye West/Tony Williams/M. Peretta/Kenneth Lewis

Produced by：Kanye West/Evidence/Porse

Aight let's run it let's run it

Yo **** you Kanye first and foremost

For making me do this **** Muh'******

Had to throw everybody out the ************* room

'Cause they don't *******-

I'd like to propose a toast

I said toast ************

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 a*s up off the wall

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 ******* 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 niggas 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 d**k 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

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 a*s up off the wall

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 a*s 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 ************ 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 niggas wear suits 'cause you can't dress no more

You can't say **** to Kanye West no more

I rocked 20000 people I was just on tour nigga

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 niggas on that lyrical ****

Mayonnaise-colored Benz I push Miracle Whips

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 niggas

Mr. Rockefeller

So get your a*s up off the wall

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

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"

"Yo you wanna sign him tell him you like how he rap"

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

I'm like oh ****

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 **** 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 **** 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"

"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

"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"

"So what you think of this"

And I was like "Man that **** 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 **** 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

"Come on let's just go"

Newark New Jersey

I hadn't even seen my apartment

I remember I pulled up

"Kanye baby we're here"

I unpacked all my ****

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

"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"

"Yo you that kid Kanye"

"You that kid that gave all them beats to Jay

Yo this nigga got classics to your beats"

"Jay got classics G"

You know I ain't talkin' ****

I'm like "oh ****"

And all this time I'm starstruck man

I'm still thinking 'bout

You know I'm picturing these niggas 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 niggas on that lyrical ****

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 ****

So that's all the response

He said "Man that was tight"

"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 d**k riders

Whatever

So I'll play them these post-Blueprint beats or whatever

And then I'll play my ****

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 ****** with me though

But then like the heads

It'd be somebody at the company that'll say

"Naw" Like Dave Lighty ****** with me

My nigga Mel brought me to a bunch of labels

Jessica Rivera man

"Man you niggas is stupid

If y'all don't sign Kanye for real"

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

"Y'all niggas is stupid"

Let's just say I didn't get my deal

The nigga that was behind me I mean

He wasn't even a nigga you know

The person who actually kicked everything off

Was Joe 3H from Capitol Records

He wanted to sign me really bad

"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"

"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 nigga 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 ****"

"Oh **** it's not even wack"

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

"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"

"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"

"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