Five songs you didn’t know Kanye West produced for other artists
Kanye West is known for many things: his rapping, his business empire, and his many controversies. But because of everything else, it can sometimes be easy to forget how much of a brilliant producer he has been for the last quarter-century or so.
Before Kanye made it big with his own records, which, obviously, he played a huge part in producing himself, he developed a fine reputation for his beatmaking on songs for the likes of Jay-Z and Talib Kweli. Ye’s production work on Jay’s 2001 hit ‘Izzo (H.O.V.A.)’ was what really got his name out there as a young producer to watch.
Even after Kanye started to become famous for his rapping, following the release of his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, he kept producing music for other people. He continued to work with Jay-Z and also with up-and-coming stars like J Cole, Rihanna, and Pusha T, but that just scratches the surface. Kanye has produced an awful lot of music through the years, and some of his collaborators have been people you wouldn’t necessarily expect.
As befitting someone of his temperament and work ethic, Kanye’s productions credits are plentiful and varied, with some real curveballs thrown in there for good measure. With that in mind, here are five songs you may not have realised he played his part in creating.
Five songs you didn’t know Kanye West produced for other artists
5. D12 – ‘D12 World’
‘D12 World’ isn’t a typical song in the group’s repertoire, in the sense that its main man, Eminem, is notably missing from it. Not only does Em not rap on ‘D12 World,’ released on the 2004 album of the same name, he doesn’t help to produce it, either, despite the fact that he does on most of the other songs on the record. This particular track he leaves to none other than Kanye West to handle.
The song is explicitly about how D12 is not solely defined by the wild success of Eminem, and that the other members can hold their own perfectly well when he’s not around. The track may well help to prove that point, but it’s a bit ironic that its producer would, in time, become one of hip-hop’s most famous figures, too. D12 just couldn’t help but align themselves with rap superstars.
4. John Legend – ‘Used to Love U’
John Legend, like many other aspiring musicians, began his career by self-releasing demos and live recordings of his performances. But things took a turn for the better when he met an up-and-coming artist named Kanye West, whom he was introduced to in 2001. Kanye liked his sound, and, ultimately, he recruited him to sing on some of his own tracks and later signed him to his GOOD Music label. It was on GOOD Music that Legend released his first-ever studio album, Get Lifted, which sent him on his way to the big time. Its lead single, ‘Used to Love U,’ was produced by both Kanye and Legend, as were several other songs on the record.
Kanye was key to getting John Legend’s career off the ground, but, in the wake of Ye’s increasing volatility in recent years, they are no longer on good terms. Reflecting on his early collaborations with Ye to The Times in May 2025, Legend recalled, “Back then Kanye was very passionate, very gifted, and he had big dreams not only for himself but also for all the people around him. He had so much optimism, so much creativity. It does feel sad, sometimes shocking, to see where he is now.”
3. Janet Jackson – ‘I Want You’
The release of Janet Jackson’s eighth album, Damita Jo, in 2004 was unfortunately overshadowed by the notorious half-time Super Bowl show she did with Justin Timberlake a month prior, in which her breast was exposed during the performance. This generated an absurd amount of coverage from the media, much of it negative, which ultimately led to Jackson’s music being blacklisted in certain quarters. Damita Jo, and its singles, consequently suffered in the charts.
The album’s second single, ‘I Want You,’ was generally well received by critics, but it never reached the heights on the charts that might have been expected had the Super Bowl incident not caused such a fuss. The song slipped under the radar a little bit, but it is extremely notable today because of two of the men who were involved in creating it. It was one of Kanye’s early productions, and he helped to write it with none other than John Legend. Both these future stars were key to it.
2. Mariah Carey – ‘Stay The Night’
The early 2000s were not great for Mariah Carey. She starred in a film in 2001, Glitter, that was widely panned by the critics, while her 2002 album Charmbracelet was far from her best work. Her next album, The Emancipation of Mimi, needed to be a good one, which, in the end, is how it turned out. It was considered her comeback album, selling really well and even doing decently with the critics. She’d restored her career, and she’d done so with a roster of collaborators that included Snoop Dogg, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West.
Kanye helped Carey to produce the song ‘Stay The Night,’ in which the full force and range of her voice is plainly demonstrated. “It’s a cool collaboration,” Mariah herself said of working with Kanye on the track, speaking on Z100 radio in 2005. “Because it’s like an old-school type of vibe and the register I’m singing in, a lot of people like, because it’s that belting, heartfelt moment.”
1. Alicia Keys – ‘You Don’t Know My Name’
‘You Don’t Know My Name,’ from her second album The Diary Of Alicia Keys, was a big moment for its star woman. The single became a top-ten hit in America following its release in 2003, while the critics loved it and it even took home a Grammy award for Best R&B Song. It was a huge success, and that success was at least partly shared by co-producer Kanye West and backing vocalist John Legend. Keys herself acknowledged this on the Rap Radar Podcast many years later.
“That was a really special moment in my career,” she said of the song, noting how amazing it was to work with Kanye and Legend at this early stage in their respective careers. “It was so fresh to combine this whole ‘Kanye when he first started’ [moment] and the sampling of the old vintage classics—that’s my style—and then putting it all together.”