DJ Toomp recently sat down with B High ATL and spoke about his work with everyone from T.I. and Kanye West to Jay-Z.
After hearing Kanye's "Big Brother" from his album Graduation, which Toomp famously produced, Jay wanted to work with the legendary producer.
“We played ‘Big Brother’ for JAY-Z for the first time, and word was going around the label, you know, Def Jam was like, ‘Yea, Ye got a record talking about JAY-Z,’” Toomp said. “Nobody knew if it was good or bad. So I was there when Jay came to listen to ‘Big Brother’ for the first time and everything. He said, ‘Ha, that’s how you feel,’ and he loved it, bro. Next thing you know, you know how that conversation went. He’s sitting right at the mixer with me. He’s like, ‘Hey, man, gotta link up. Let me know.’ He wanted to get up soon, and next thing you know, he ordered up on the American Gangster album.”
Toomp flew to New York on his own dime with four beats ready to let Jay hear. But because Jay was already knee-deep into the project, he only wanted to hear three. And that's when the magic happened. Toomp ended up playing the beat to "Say Hello" and everyone went crazy, including Jermaine Dupri, producer No I.D. (who JD was managing at the time), and Jay's longtime producer, Young Guru.
