The Takeover

Our labor of love, our baby, is finally here. I hope you guys enjoy it. Lot of hard work, 5 am drives home, and cans of Joose went into this project. Not exactly blood, sweat and tears, but you get it. I figure I could drop a little TakingYouOver.com Exclusive *drop bombs, sirens, baby rattles, cow bells, train sounds* by giving you random information about each track. Here goes.

1. LIVE FROM THE 626- Ironically, the very first and last song we recorded on. Werk laid down his verses in April I believe. We went in and added all of the commentary in October. Oh, and the drunk girl laughing is our friend Mai. Dae One was tryin to record her laugh, so i flashed a vinyl of Prince’s “1999″ at her. Thats her reaction on the track.

2. RAP HUSTLE- One of my favorite tracks. Hawdwerk just spits. I love that. The sample is from the Hair Soundtrack. Who knew a gritty beat would come from the Hair soundtrack. Don’t ask how I came across it.

3. WOW!- I knew nobody would wanna rhyme on this but Werk. I also knew when he rhymed on it, it would be amazing. J-Br05ki came through with the scratches. I LOVE the Kanye scratch at the end. Oh yea, Werk killed the hook! It sounded super plain when he emailed the idea, until I heard him actually say it in the studio. That’s how it goes sometimes.

4. THAT SPLIFF- The original sample says “Reach for K2r, and lift…that spot…right out!” I freaked it to make it say what it does. Me and Werk were both hyped about it, and knew it had to be a smoking anthem, even though we both smoke very rarely. We randomly had the same 2 artists in mind: El Prez and Poetik Force, our homie from the Cov. This was a fun ass session.

5. ALL I NEED- This was one of my favorite beats in the batch of 40 that I gave to Werk. I thought he hated it, because he never mentioned anything about it. But the thing with Werk is, he’ll have a moment of genius and write a monster to something that he wasn’t feeling that much. He doesn’t write shit off. He’s organic with the music. That’s rare for an artist, in my opinion. Oh yea, dude that says “Yall niggas suck” plays football for UCLA. Random.

6. SHE SMILES- We set out to create a song for the ladies. Something that every hip hop girl would listen to and say “oooo girl he talkin bout me”. I had a hook in mind, that I thought was genius. Werk had a hook in mind, that he thought was genius. J7 said lemme come through and write one, and we’ll build from there. Except when J7 wrote his hook, we surrendered. It was amazing.

7. RIDE- Fun joint. Our salute to home. The God Sincere killin’ the hook.  I wrote the hook just tryin to capture a good day in the Cov. The homie Thomas Drayton, who plays bass for heavy hitters (Neff-U, Polow Da Don, The Game) blessed us with some live bass. I did the switch up at the end, just fuckin around. At first we were gonna have Werk rhymin like OJ Da Juiceman on the switchup, but we thought it might take away from the song. We really were going to.

8. THROW THE BOMBS- I can’t front. This beat/hook I wrote is very much Clipse “Hell Hath No Fury” influenced. I even got my voice on the hook, like Pharrell would. I hate that I made this before Run This Town, the clacks sound like I bit it. Hawdwerk went back and forward for about a week about the first 8 bars of the song. He thought the Jewish analogies might be too much. Then again, I thought the analogy was powerful and crucial to the song. So we kept it. And I love it.

9. GREMLINS- So, I was giving Jasmin DJ nicknames on AIM. I suggested DJ Gizmo. I educated her on who Gizmo was, and youtubed the Gremlins theme song to send to her. Of course, all of a sudden, im thinkin “Oh shit, I can flip this!” Fast forward, I’m in the studio with Basicali, and Hawdwerk comes through. My laptop is there, and I show him this weird ass beat called Gremlins that I thought nobody would want. He put on the headphones, grabbed a paper, and started writing furiously. This nigga connected a whole song to Gremlins. Wrote it in about 45 min. No lie.

10. HIGH POWER MOVES- I made this towards the end of our recording sessions. I wanted to save it and send to Strong Arm Steady, but Hawdwerk was perfect for it. Why not give Hawdwerk my best work? So we recorded it, hook and all, and Dae One came to the studio. I had my chest out, thinkin I made a dope ass beat. He pretty much said “Oh thats cool, but it needs more. Go to the keyboard and start working.” I told him I didn’t play keys. He said sure u do, and showed me. I love Dae One for pushing me on this record.

11. BELIEVERS- My favorite track. When I started sending Werk beats in March, I told him I wanted to get Prophit and Avi on it and make it a dope ass cypher track. Thats what we got. They all gassed on this. Incredible emcees. Prophit did his muhfuggin thang.

12. HEARIN SHIT- All loops. No drums. Dae One added the storm atmosphere. Hawdwerk rhymed as a demon. Nothing more needs to be said.

13. FLY AS ME- Longest session ever. I believe we did Rap Hustle this night, and Dae One and Noni came through the studio. We decided to randomly collab on a track. They started writing to one track, for about an hour. Me and Werk go to the store, come back, and niggas switched the beat! This one was better though. I actually wanted this to be an interlude beat. Thank God I didn’t executive produce the project alone.

14. COMPUTER- Im surprised the mic didn’t pick up my laughing. I was laughing every single take. Even if he had to do certain parts 5 or 6 times. I laughed everytime. The adlibs were the greatest. Camel Cakes.

15. CHANGE YOUR MIND- I teased Werk this entire session. Pause. Called it the “Just Say No To Drugs” track on our album, our PSA track. The song really does have a great message. The hook is true word for word from our combined experience throughout this process. I love the 3rd verse.

16. SEASON FINALE- Dae One sent me a batch of samples that he wasn’t planning on using. I thought he was crazy when he passed this specific sample up. Werk wrote the realest shit ever. One of the few songs in music that gives me goosebumps. The line about his sister and nephews….I connect WAY too much with that shit. That’s what music is suppose to do, right?

In all seriousness (you’ll rarely hear this from me btw) it’s been a blessing to work with everybody that was involved with this project. We had alot of fun, made new friends, strengthened other friendships, and made some special music in the process. If this is one of the positive outcomes of working in the music industry, sign me up. I appreciate EVERY one of you that has supported the music and told somebody about what we’re doing. Love yall….bidges.

-’Sport