(AllHipHop News) TDE emcee Kendrick Lamar scored a Number One on the Billboard 200 with the 2016 compilation project Untitled Unmastered. Besides being a chart-topper, the 8-track effort is also memorable for being the production debut of Egypt Dean.
The reason “Untitled 07 | 2014 – 2016” was a special moment is because Egypt was just five years old when he made the beat used on the song. Plus, the elementary-aged producer is the son of music legends Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.
Swizz spoke about his scion collaborating with Lamar during a segment of MSNBC’s and NBC News Think’s Mavericks with Ari Melber. The 41-year-old born Kasseem Dean admitted that he felt a certain level of envy that Egypt got a placement on a Kendrick project.
“I’m a little jealous of my son because he worked on a Kendrick Lamar album before me. So, Egypt worked on Kendrick Lamar at five, the album Untitled track number seven. He produced it, wrote it, and Kendrick actually used it. [Egypt] made history as the youngest producer,” Swizz told Melber. “I videotaped the whole thing because people wouldn’t believe that he did it.”
Swizz continued, “Him and Kendrick connected at the Super Bowl… The next day history was made. I still don’t know the conversation they had. Kendrick was like, ‘I wanna stay in touch with him. He changed my life.’ I’m like, ‘He’s five, you’re Kendrick.’ He was just like, ‘He reminded me of myself as a youth and made me unlock my writer’s block at the time.'”
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The Mavericks with Ari Melber episode also included Swizz Beatz recalling stories of his time working with DMX, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Drake. Apparently, The Monster and the OVO leader filmed a music video for a song from Drizzy’s debut album, Thank Me Later, that never saw the light of day.
“I worked with Drake early. It was cool to see him progressing into the superstar he is today. I remember getting the phone call at 4:00 in the morning of him wanting to work with me,” stated Swizz. “I had a song called ‘Fancy’ which was for my album. And he was just saying, ‘I want something where I can sing and I could rap.’ And I had ‘Fancy’ and I was like, ‘I’m gonna send you something and see if it’s the vibe of what you’re thinking about. But this is for my album.'”
The One Man Band Man and Poison creator added, “[‘Fancy’] became his. [Drake] was like, ‘I need this.’ And I’m like, ‘Damn.’ We shot a video for it that never came out… I don’t’ have it… We should just put the ‘Fancy’ video out, just because.”