What is the backstory behind some of your favorite songs?

DJ Toomp: “A few people had 'What You Know' before T.I. did. First Benzino and then Baby from Cash Money made a song to it. But after T.I. did it, I had to call everybody and be like, 'This track is not available anymore.' Some people took it kind of hard, but at the end of the day they had to basically commend me. They were like, 'We wouldn’t have been able to do what this song did. We’re glad that you let T.I. get this record.'

“I use to always go through the crates and just listen to a lot of ol’ skool records. Some of the end-parts of a lot of those records from the 70s be the most musical part with the most feeling. . A lot of joints that I’ve actually sampled is usually the end part. On Mariah Carey’s 'Stay With Me,' I used the DeBarge record, and that was the end part of the song. I did the same with Jay-Z’s 'Say Hello.'

“So around this time, I had always liked the end part of that song 'Gone Away' by Roberta Flack. But it really didn’t come out too cool when I tried to sample it for 'What You Know,' so me and my engineer at the time, this guy name Wonder, we played the melody and we put it together and he played some of the instruments on there to help me pull out some of the synthesizers. Once I put the beat on it and just really started arranging it and really hooking it up, making it thorough, I started moving it around.

“It came together nicely. When I played it for Tip I remember he came up with the hook in like ten minutes. People would walk into the room and just when they heard the hook, they knew it was out of here. I mean, no verse or nothing, just the hook alone, had them like, 'Oh my ? , it’s gone. It’s a smash.'

“Till this day, 'What You Know' and 'Good Life' are two of my biggest records. Kanye won a Grammy off 'Good Life,' and I won a Grammy off 'What You Know' also. I would say both records are neck and neck as far as success.

“I remember when 'What You Know' first came out, DJ Khaled called me from Miami and was like, 'Yo, you guys got a smash! I want you to listen to this crowd man when I drop this record and watch what they do.' He dropped that ? and everybody went crazy. He was like, 'Man you got one, I’m telling you, you got one.' He was excited, it was like he was almost about to say, 'Yo man, we the best!'

“It was also wild because I had the pressure put on me. Craig Kallman and Mike Caren were like, 'Hey, we doing this ATL movie too and we need a big record— something big and crazy!' and that’s what we came with. I delivered.”

DJ Toomp: “'Big Brother' wasn’t just the last song on the Graduation album: it was the last song me and Kanye recorded and the last song he mixed. While working in the studio, I remember Ye kept on telling me about a hook and a concept, and he kept saying, 'I got this thing called ‘Big Brother’ and it’s supposed to be a song where I’m talking to Jay. I need [a beat] with some real feel in it.'

“I’ve always been a fan of Prince. And that song, 'It’s Gonna be Lonely' is one of my favorite Prince songs. I use to always love the end part of it. So what I did was replay that part of the song, after Ye told me what he wanted. I took it to the lab and made 'Big Brother' in one day.

“When I played it, it was some A&Rs from Def Jam in the studio and everybody was just like, 'Wow, that’s incredible.' Ye looked at me and was like, 'Damn dude, you just did that?' And I said, 'Yea, I did that today. Strictly for you.' So he rapped over it.

“I then came up to New York to mix the record. But by the time I got there, Prince said me and Ye couldn’t use his music. Then later he decided to let us use it, but he said he wanted one hundred percent of it— he didn’t want us to have any publishing.

“I looked at Ye and was like, 'Man, honestly you can do shows…but I eat off of publishing. I’m not about to have that man taking all my publishing.'

“Crazy thing is, I didn’t bring the particular laptop I would’ve needed to New York, because I thought that the song would have been cleared. So I had to fly back to Atlanta to not only get my computer, but remake the entire record. I had to move some notes around and come up with my own melody.

“So I flew down to Atlanta for just a few hours, and right when I was done remaking the record, I left right out of my studio and went straight to the airport. I didn’t even have time to see anyone when I came home—I remade the beat and headed back to New York. I never panicked. That’s the last ? I would do. But there was some pressure.

“When I got back to New York, Ye synced the vocals back up with the track, and it was the same magic. Everybody was like, 'Man, you didn’t miss a beat. That ? is incredible, let’s go.'

“I was there when Jay-Z first heard 'Big Brother.' Ye wanted him to hear it before it was finished just to make sure he would approve it. Ye was speaking of Jay on that record but at the same time he was like, 'Let me let him hear this to make sure that it’s cool—so he won’t feel like I’m talking bad about him on the record.'

“Ye had been told Jay about the record, but when Jay finally heard it, it was like a little quiet moment in the studio. In the studio it was just me, Ye, Jay, and Jay Brown. It was an emotional moment. I mean, it wasn’t no tearjerker moment, but it was like, 'Damn bro, that’s how you feel?' It was love. It wasn’t too much said at all, it was just a quiet moment. I mean Jay is good at not showing emotion, he done mastered that ? . I don’t know who he learned that from but he’s good. But when he heard 'Big Brother' he was just like, 'Yea man, that ? ’s right.'”