Enjoy this fantastic story Kenny Beats told ItsTheReal during his recent appearance on their podcast, regarding how the producer first linked up with Ab-Soul and the TDE crew (and ended up with three beat placements with the label):

“I hit up this producer, Rahk, and he produced on Overly Dedicated for Kendrick and a lot of early TDE shit. I was like, ‘Bro, [ScHoolboy] Q has a show…’ and they were doing a shoe signing at this sneaker store called Laced. I was like, ‘Rahk, do you know anybody? I’ll pull up, dah, dah, dah, whatever they need.’ He was like, ‘They’re probably gonna need some weed, bro. Pull up.’ I went there. Ab-Soul had not dropped Control System yet. So, Ab was well-known and had a name, but he wasn’t really doing the signing.

“So Q was out fronting, signing kids’ stuff. Someone came, met me, brought me to the back, and Ab was just chilling in the back. I was an avid Ab-Soul fan. I could really tell him all his lyrics, all the songs he dropped over the last three years and who produced it… I gave him the weed. I’m not even gonna ask for any money. He was the coolest. We smoked; he took his glasses off, which is a rare thing… We just talked, and eventually he got to where I could interject a little thing: ‘On this project, you said,’ and he was like, ‘Oh, you really pay attention.’ At the end of us leaving the sneaker store, I was like, ‘Dude, I have two beats on my phone. I’m not trying to be the worst, but I have these headphones. Would you just listen?’

“Ab was like, ‘Yeah, bro, whatever…’ The first beat [became] ScHoolboy Q’s ‘Party.’ The second beat was ‘Hunnid Stax’—Ab-Soul, Q, Mac Miller—and the third beat was Smoke DZA and Ab-Soul, ‘Diamonds.’ So I gave Ab those three beats, and he placed all three.”

Woah, Kenny.