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

“3 Kings” – Rick Ross featuring Dr. Dre and JAY Z

That was originally a beat for Dr. Dre. That was a Detox song for sure. He was going to put Kendrick Lamar on it first, but for whatever reason that didn’t work out. Then he went to Miami and did the joint with Ross. That was probably about a full year before it came out. It was kind of just sitting there, but Dre loved the song. I don’t really talk to Dre at all, so I would just hear from the people around him that the record was crazy. I figured it had to be a banger with all these people telling me that the song was amazing. I had some other songs that he had done for Detox, so I had heard that before. I just wasn’t really sure what was going to happen with it, because obviously the music hasn’t really come out. It was bugged out, because the Ross album was getting ready to come out and a guy in Dre’s camp nonchalantly texted me one morning like “So yeah, Ross is using that record and JAY Z is on it.” I was like holy shit! [laughs]. When the song premiered, I happened to be in New York at a friend’s house. Hot 97 played the record for like 45 minutes straight. That was definitely a different experience for me. I never really had songs that played on the radio like that. That was really cool. When I made that beat I had just heard “Lord Knows” by Drake. Just Blaze destroyed that beat. I just loved it. I had some beats in that vein already, but that Just beat just put me in zone.