EXCLUSIVE – Kanye West has his shortcomings, but loyalty isn’t one of them — or so that’s according to his longtime friend and collaborator Consequence.
Speaking to HipHopDX, Cons recalled how his and Ye’s verses from 2005’s “Gone” — which appears on Kanye’s second album, Late Registration, and also features Cam’ron — were actually supposed to be on a Jennifer Lopez record.
“The first verse for ‘Gone’ was originally supposed to be on J.Lo’s ‘Get Right,’” Consequence told DX. However, some “playa hating” from the pop star’s camp resulted in them just wanting Kanye on the track.
“They didn’t want me to be on it,” Cons said. “At the time they were just like, ‘We just wanna have Kanye on it.’ And Kanye was like, ‘Yo, if Cons don’t do it, I’m not doing it.’ Fact.”
So out of loyalty Kanye West took his verse off the record and used it for “Gone” which is now considered to be one his greatest tracks.
The single version of J.Lo’s “Get Right” — which was written by Rich Harrison and includes writing credits from Usher and James Brown — was released with no guests, but the song’s remix features two verses Fabolous.
Elsewhere in his interview with DX, the Queens native recounted how GLC‘s “Spaceship” ended up being a Kanye West record and the deal he made to have it.
“‘Spaceship’ was GLC record that Kanye did for him and Kanye only done the chorus,” Cons explained. “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.’”
Cons also explained how the humbling relatability of “Spaceship” 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.”
[via]
