Kanye Gets On His Grind Backstage (Pg. 3)

“Go Hard” (Feat. Kanye West and T-Pain)

Khaled says: Kanye is great friend of mine. He was doing a show in Miami, and so I went backstage to try and find him. It's hard to get with Kanye. You got to have patience, and he don’t just fuck with just anybody; everybody doesn’t get a verse from him. 'Ye has to really respect you to work with you.

So I’m talking to him in the lounge area at the arena and I played him “Out Here Grindin’” before it leaked and he went crazy. And then I played him the “Go Hard” beat, and I started singing the hook right there myself. His eyes opened up wide, and I knew he understood my energy.

I remember Don C was getting on him about getting the record done. He called me a few weeks later saying he was going to do the entire record. I got so hyped over that call. So I eventually caught back up with him in Atlanta backstage—just bumping into him on the fly, and he tells me that he finished the record. I remember Usher was there and Kanye pulls out his laptop and played the finished version in front of everyone in the room.

A crazy thing about the remix was that I asked Jay-Z to get on the record, and this was my first time reaching out to him, but I kept hearing that he loved the record. I didn’t receive anything in time to make the cut, so I thought it was a wrap. Low and behold, on Christmas Eve of that year, Lenny S. calls me and says ”Merry Christmas” and blessed me with the verse for the remix.