Che Pope is the big homie, he’d look out for me and play my beats for Ye. I get a phone call from Che one day and he’s like, ‘Yo, your boy Post is here in the studio with Kanye. Where are you at?’ Kanye was working out of Shangri-La, which is Rick Rubin’s studio out in Malibu, super cool spot. I got the invite to come out and work on some stuff. Like I said, I wouldn’t be making beats if it wasn’t for Kanye so when I was outside the studio I was like, ‘Man, I’m about to be starstruck, I’m probably going to be acting weird. I’m meeting my idol, this is crazy.’

But when I walked in it was like, ‘Oh, he’s just a regular dude.’ I shook his hand and I remember he had a big smile on his face. I noticed that everyone in the room seemed like they were just trying to hang out and be around Ye, so I pretty much immediately said, ‘Hey, I’m here to work, what song ideas do you have? Where can I cook up?’ And he just smiled and told Noah [Goldstein], ‘Man, let’s load him up.’

Kanye had all these samples he wanted to use for his project. He had the Mr. Fingers sample, the Hardrive sample. He also had a rough mix idea for it with a basic kick snare. Him and Post were writing so I went into the next room and cooked up. I chopped the ‘Deep Inside’ vocal sample slightly different to how I heard it and started experimenting with a whole switch up section because in every song I produce I make sure there’s two different themes or two progressions.

So I found this really abrasive, high-pitched riser sound and played it over the sample chop. Then I took a bunch of drums from my kit and tried different patterns. I did a synth bass mixed in with 808s. I used what I call the bike chain—it’s literally a mic’d recording of a bicycle chain as it spins and slows down. I recorded that shit a couple years ago. People probably think it’s a hi-hat roll, but it’s not. I actually wrote a really interesting chord progression as well but they didn’t want all the chords, they just wanted the other sounds—the riffs, the drums, the 808s—so I cut it in. Where the beat switches up, my parts come in there.

It’s kind of a competition when you’re working on Kanye records because he likes to call in a lot of people. I’m working on a song and in the next room you’ve got James Blake or Mike WiLL [Made-It] and I’m thinking, ‘fuck!’ You never really know what Kanye’s going to fuck with until the last minute. I remember when I played my [version of ‘Fade’] in the room, Rick Rubin was like, ‘Yo, this is it.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Shit! If I got the Rick co-sign, I’m definitely on the record.’ And then a couple weeks later Kim Kardashian tweeted something like, ‘all music should sound like this,’ and it was ‘Fade.’

Juicy J mistook me for a runner. I went outside to take a little break and Juicy was standing there with some of his people. They were like, ‘yo, can you get us some waters and cookies’ or something like that. I’m like, ‘What? Nah, I ain’t doing that shit.’ And he’s like, ‘My man, can you go do this?’ And I’m like, ‘Yo, I don’t fucking work here. I’m here producing. Why do you think I work here?’ And he goes, ‘white dude with a beard and long hair.’ I started looking around and I swear to God everyone who Rick Rubin employs as a runner is a white dude with a beard {laughs}.