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Kanye West has had many nicknames throughout his career, including Yeezus, Saint Pablo and Louis Vuitton Don. Aside from Ye, one of his most popular names has been Yeezy, which he received from a fellow rapper at Roc-A-Fella Records.

During his appearance on Drink Champs, Kanye revealed that State Property leader Beanie Sigel was the one who first called him Yeezy. “People who took a liking to me in volatile situations would always give me a nickname so it seemed like I was cool like them,” he said. “My boy Mali who used to sell guns, he called me K-Rock when I would be on 79th and stuff like that.”

He continued, “[Yeezy] was Beanie’s name for me when I was in Baseline [Studios]. Like on some, ‘Oh, that’s Yeezy,’ make him one of us. He let me wear his State Property chain. He really just embraced me.”

Sigel signed to Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella in 1998, releasing his first two solo albums on the prominent label: The Truth and The Reason. Ye was behind the title track on his debut album while also producing ‘Nothing Like It’ and ‘Gangsta, Gangsta’ on the latter.

Following the revelation about his nickname, which also served as the name of his popular Adidas collaboration, Sigel said he received a call from Ye, claiming he was going to give him $50 million. “I got a phone call from the muthafucka the other day. He said Sig gon’ get $50 million and a five percent stock in Yeezy,” he said. “And I don’t know if n*ggas know, Yeezys did $1.7 billion last year.”

However, Sigel admitted that he wasn’t bothered about being paid for giving him the name. Instead, he wanted to go into business with Ye regarding some big ideas rather than just accepting money.

“I did name him that, but as far as his business mind and where he took it, Kanye worked hard for this,” he told TMZ. “Kanye don’t owe me nothing. I don’t know if I would take a number. Because you give somebody a fish today, he gon’ eat for the day. If you teach somebody how to fish, he’s gon’ eat forever. He’s gon’ teach his family how to fish.”

He added, “I’m not even thinking about a number, but I would love to do some business where I can earn some money ’cause I’m an earner. I never was the type to take just for a handout. My mind is sorta like Kanye’s mind… I think outside the box. I’ve got a lot of business ventures that I think if me and Kanye were to sit down and I had that opportunity to present it to him, it’s some money on the table that I can earn.”

On another occasion, Jay-Z used a spinoff of the Yeezy name on his 2003 track ‘Lucifer’ from The Black Album — a song which Kanye produced. Shouting him out on the intro, he rapped, “Kanyeezy, you did it again, you a genius, n*gga!”