The hit 2011 song Kanye West produced in 15 minutes
‘Otis,’ lifted from their 2011 collaborative album Watch the Throne, showed Kanye West and Jay-Z operating at their best.
The song, which samples Otis Redding and takes its name from him, sees the two rappers trading verses about wealth and fame, over a beat made by Ye alone. The music was widely praised around the time the song came out, with critics noting that it called back to his earlier soul-powered production style.
The song was nominated for two Grammys, winning the one for Best Rap Performance. It was, in other words, a much-celebrated and beloved song, which makes it all the more incredible to learn the speed with which it was created.
Ye put the beat together in a matter of minutes.
That’s the claim made by Lenny Santiago, an executive with Roc Nation, who wrote on Instagram about ‘Otis’ on the fifth anniversary of its release. Describing it as one of his favourite songs, he said that he was present at its inception.
They were at the Mercer Hotel in New York, where much of Watch the Throne was created. As a particular session was coming to an end, Ye had a flight scheduled and needed to leave soon. But he said he wanted to “fuck with this Otis Redding sample idea he had” first. So he got to work.
Lenny S apparently tried to interfere, reminding him that he needed to get to the airport. But Ye persisted, insisting that everyone present needed to hear how good the Otis sample was. This original song, incidentally, was Redding’s 1966 rendition of ‘Try a Little Tenderness.’
Ye started to chop up the track then and there, leaving Lenny amazed at what he was seeing and hearing. “Ye being one of my favorite producers, I’m literally hype as fuck and in awe,” he admitted.
Within 15 or 20 minutes, Ye was done. He “runs off to catch his flight,” Lenny recalled, having just created the “phenomenal track known to us as ‘Otis.’” It had been that easy for him.