One of my favorite parts of “Games We Play” is how you flip “Politics as Usual,” but then, later on the album, you interpolate one of JAY’s bars from “The Prelude” on Kingdom Come. I love that because everyone dives on that album all the time, but it does have gems in its own right.

No, for sure, for sure. And you have to remember that Kingdom Come came out the same year as Hell Hath No Fury. So me, being the competitor, I always used to A and B them joints, ’cause you know there’s no album better than Hell Hath No Fury. So discovering the gems on Kingdom Come was like, I had to. Man, I definitely lived with that album and was very, very meticulous in thumbing through it when it first dropped.

Now, to that end, you’re also a self-professed huge Nas fan, and with you guys all kind of working in and out of Wyoming at the same time, I find it kinda crazy that Nas didn’t end up on the album—or you didn’t end up on his.

I mean, look at how everything was so up to the wire, right? I didn’t have time. Like, I put my album out and I had to go on the road ASAP. When [Kanye] made the announcement of the date, man, we were booking dates from that day forward. Agents calling the phone and putting the tour together. I don’t know if he gets that part of [the business]. Because, you know, he was a bit bothered, I think, that I didn’t come back to Wyoming after that. But I couldn’t, you know what I'm saying?

You had an album to promote.

Listen, I got press to do, and shows. It’s like, I gotta run with the ball at this point, on every level. Me being in Wyoming wasn’t what was best after the fact. Like I said, when you put out these dates—I don’t have the Kanye West luxury of, you say a date, and you get there when you get there. I have to really support mine. You know what I’m saying? Like, really. So with that being the case, yeah, I probably missed the Nas sessions, and missed the opportunity to come back and be a part of that. Listen, for “Feel the Love,” I was overseas somewhere. It was either Canada or I’m feeling, like, Sweden—somewhere overseas. But even that came about via “Hey, I need you to get to a studio ASAP.” I’m like, “I don’t know if I can get to...” “Nah man, you gotta get to a studio. You really do.”

But, you know, features for the sake of doing features, I’m not really into. If I feel like I don't have anything to say on my song, or after my verse, and I need another verse, then I start thinking about, “OK, who belongs on this?” But just to say that you got a feature from somebody... And listen, to be honest with you, man, everybody has a million different things going on as well. Under the time constraints we were on, I wouldn’t even have pushed that onto Nas. I wouldn’t have done that myself. We was running and gunning.

Your selective approach towards features for your own projects shows, but what is it about you and Rick Ross together that always yields fire?

Man, Ross is flawless. Ross is one of the only rappers who I can ask for a feature and turn my back. I mean, first of all, he’s [actually] gonna send it, and it’s gonna be flawless every time. He understands. When I send him things, I send it to him with my verse. The beat, the verse, the part that’s open for him. I want the chemistry to be totally intact, and he marries it and matches it every time. People might get sick of me and Ross collaborating, you know what I’m saying? I’m never sick of it, ever. I wanna hear it every time.