Kanye West‘s “Spaceship” is a fan-favorite from his acclaimed debut The College Dropout, but it wasn’t always his record as Consequence pointed out in a new interview with HipHopDX.
The Queens native recounted how GLC‘s “Spaceship” ended up with Kanye after he jumped on the track and the deal Yeezy made to have it.
“‘Spaceship’ was GLC record that Kanye did for him and Kanye only done the chorus,” Cons told DX. “So GLC was meeting Consequence from Tribe … So it was like, ‘Yo, you think I could get you on my joint.’ I was like, ‘Alright.’… I don’t really rap like that so that was really me doing some Chicago shit.
“When Ye heard my verse, that’s when he jumped on ‘Spaceship’ and then it made sense for him — in order to have both of us featured, and everybody loved ‘Spaceship,’ was to put ‘Spaceship’ on The College Dropout and give me back ‘The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.’”
GLC was an original member of Kanye’s former Go Getters group in Chicago and was more than happy to lend “Spaceship” to Ye since he was signed to Def Jam.
“Kanye was like, ‘I know I told you this, but that shit got to go on my album.’ I was like, cool, you signed to Def Jam; I’m signed to nobody. Let’s go,’” GLC told Complex in 2014. “So I helped Kanye out with his verse, helped him out with the direction of it and getting it together.”
Cons also explained how the humbling relatability of “Spaceship” for listeners made it a hit, even though the Marvin Gaye-sampling track wasn’t a single.
“I think the story of ‘Spaceship’ is what people fell in love with,” he claimed. “I think the relatability of the 9-5 aspect of that song and not just the 9-5 aspect, but the evaluation of success and failure on that record is what a lot of people drew towards.”
As a result, “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly” was swapped out from The College Dropout and given to Consequence as his own.
A music video was eventually released for the “Spaceship” years later in 2009 and Kanye premiered unreleased footage from a separate “Spaceship” clip as part of 2020’s #WESTDAYEVER on his website.
Kanye’s 2004 debut went on to debut at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 441,000 album units sold in the first week. Even throughout Ye’s turbulent 2022, The College Dropout still held strong throughout the year on the chart with a peak of No. 11 almost two decades later.
[VIA]
