Jay-Z - The Dynasty (2000)

One day we were supposed to be recording Scarface's verse, we were all just sort of sprawled out, bullshitting in the front room at Bassline Studios, which was the home studio for Roc-A-Fella Record. We had a pool table and some couches and we were just shooting, joking around with my engineer, Guru, and getting ready to go in the booth. Then Scarface's phone rang, and as soon as he picked it up, the look in his face changed. He kept saying the same thing over and over again, "Nahh… nahhh, man…". Then he was quiet for a while. When hung up, he told us what happened. His homeboy had called to tell him that a friend of theirs had just lost one of his kids in a fire. We're all just sitting there like, Fuck. Then Scarface was back on the phone to his own wife to tell her the news and to check on how his own kids were doing.

When he got off the phone I told him, "Yo, we'll get the verse another time." He shook his head. "Nah, Jig, nah, I'll do it now". He went off on his own for a while to compose his verse. When he came into the booth to record, he laid down the verse that's on the album in one take. His first lines were, Now as I walk into the studio to do this with Jig, I got a phone call from one of my nigs.

Scarface turned that moment of pain instantly into a great piece of writing, which he followed with a powerful vocal performance. It was incredible to watch.

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