Credit: Alamy

Kanye West is a legend and has been a prominent artist in hip-hop for the best part of two decades. However, he was operated underneath other artists before he came into his own. That said, he worked with various figures before he teamed up with Jay-Z as a Roc-a-Fella signee.

No I.D. was one of the most critical individuals Kanye encountered in his quest to achieve fame as a beatmaker. The Chicagoan producer continued to develop Kanye’s talents and taught him the tricks of the trade. No I.D. was West’s manager for a short period, but he couldn’t handle his temperamental nature.

Knowing the budding producer needed a home, he introduced West to Kyambo Joshua, the A&R of Roc-A-Fella and the CEO of a production house named hip-hop. In 1998, Joshua signed Kanye on the hip-hop roster.

In 1999, Joshua presented Jay-Z with one of Kanye’s beats. Hov continued to use West’s beats, and although he was initially hesitant, in 2002, he signed West as an artist. Carter originally was insistent that Kanye would only be able to sign a production deal. However, he quickly signed West as an artist when other labels became interested.

Kanye has sold a number of beats to Jay over the years. However, there is one specific beat that he sold to Jay-Z twice. In 2001, Hov released his biggest and most impactful track, ‘Izzo (H.O.V.A.)’, but there was a slight technical issue with its instrumental. Kanye had already sold the beat to another rapper when Jay decided he wanted to use it for his lead single.

Jay-Z released The Blueprint in 2001. It was a highly successful album, receiving five mics from The Source, being certified three times platinum, and ending up in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. The project’s most well-known song, ‘Izzo (H.O.V.A.)’, was Jay-Z’s first top-ten track and set a precedent for the material to come.

The Kanye West-produced single hears Jay-Z speak about his past as a crack dealer in Brooklyn, his struggles navigating the music industry as a solo artist, and his childhood growing up in Bedford–Stuyvesant’s Marcy projects.

The Blueprint heard production from the best of the best. Listeners were gifted with beats by The Trackmasters, Timbaland, The Neptunes, Just Blaze and, of course, Kanye West. The beat, which samples the Jackson Five’s 1969 hit ‘I Want You Back’, was perfect for Jay.

When West played it for the Brooklyn icon, he loved it immediately and began writing to it. However, before Jay-Z recorded the song, the beat had been sold to Cam’Ron. In an interview on Shade45’s The Whollywood Shuffle, Cam’Ron explained, I was mad at Kanye in the beginning ‘cause he was just shopping beats. I was on Epic [Records] still, and he sold a beat to me!” Cam’Ron continued, “Then the beat he gave to me, he gave it to Hov. Kanye gave me the H to the Izzo beat. Then I heard the shit on the radio two weeks later.”

Despite all of this, the beat was initially meant for Ghostface Killah and Kanye made the instrumental with the Wu-Tang Clan emcee in mind specifically. However, he ended up passing on the record as he didn’t like it.

Although Cam’Ron (real name Cameron Giles) paid for the 2001 hit, Kanye gave him the instrumental for ‘Down And Out’ in compensation. However, Kanye was paid twice for the promise of the instrumental that ultimately became the backtrack of ‘Izzo (H.O.V.A.)’.

You can hear more about the sneaky story of Kanye’s double-sale of ‘Izzo (H.O.V.A.)’ in the video below.