Check The Credits: Jake One On Producing For Rick Ross, J. Cole, Drake, Wale, & More

“Salute” – T.I.

There was this beat DJ Khalil made for this group Pac Div. I just kept listening to it. I loved the progression he did on it. I wasn’t trying to remake his beat, but I wanted something that felt like it. That’s when I created the “Salute” beat. I was in a production deal with Dr. Dre at the time and I would give him almost every beat I made first. I sent that to him and he didn’t really like it at first. Once he didn’t seem to like it I gave it to one of my boys, who worked at Atlantic Records. He played it at an A&R meeting and everybody loved it. From there it got to T.I. and he ended up recording to it. That was around the time that he had to go back to jail, which made it kind of unclear as to what was going to happen with the record. While Tip was sitting on the record, Dre revisited the beat and decided he wanted it. He even did a song to it. He really didn’t want to let it go, but I had already given it to T.I. That was definitely one of the beats I felt I put together in the right way. Sometimes I listen to stuff I do and feel I could’ve done it a lot better, but with that particular one it just came together right.