He’s a businessman, he’s an artist, he’s a producer.” “What I didn’t see was how big his vision was and how he was going to attack it himself. “People were on me like, ‘What you gonna do after this?’ I personally signed Kanye, and I wanna take credit for that because I feel good that I believed in him and I saw his vision,” he told MTV.

By now, Dash had seen just how much West wanted this, and finally signed him to Roc-A-Fella as a rapper. West had all-but signed to Capitol when the label’s president was persuaded that his records would never sell, and the deal fell through.

He was probably the hungriest dude I ever saw.” “He’d be ready to rap on the spot, ready to tell his story on the spot, ready to make a record on the spot. “Kanye was never down on himself,” Capitol A&R Joe “3H” Weinberger told MTV in 2009. Yet West was so determined he was ready to defect he began courting other labels, including Capitol, who came close to signing him in 2002. Then there’s Kanye, who to my knowledge has never hustled a day in his life.” Jay-Z said in 2005. “We all grew up street guys who had to do whatever we had to do to get by.

Jay and Damon Dash balked at the idea of West joining the competition.

Jay z blueprint 1 production credit