Jay-Z: The Real Return Of The King

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JAY-Z: At the end of that night, I took a beat CD with 30 tracks. I would make the songs, then call him over to my studio and he'd hear them.

DIDDY: We've become friends over the last couple years. We [became] connected through a friend of ours who passed, but before and after we weren't really friends. Now your legacy is at stake every time. Every year we flip-flop 1 and 2 on the Forbes list [of the richest rappers]. People want to make sure that doesn't water us down, that we can still hit 'em with that uncut raw — like we still broke, and he's from Brooklyn, I'm from Harlem.

ALDRIN ''DJ TOOMP'' DAVIS (producer, T.I.'s ''What You Know''): Jay's people reached out: ''We need more beats.'' I'm like, ''For who?'' They whisper, ''Jay's working on a new album. Don't tell nobody!''

JAY-Z: Me and Jermaine [Dupri, producer], we did ''Money Ain't a Thang'' in 1998; we were always talking about doing it again. He finally came [in mid-September], and he had [producer] No I.D. with him. Then Toomp walks in. I played them [the music] so they could know sonically where we were, then it was two days of just going at it.

DJ TOOMP: They got wine, fruit, cheese everywhere. At the same time, Jay was playing the movie [American Gangster]. It was almost like a party.

DION ''No I.D.'' WILSON (producer, Common's ''I Used to Love H.E.R.''): That first day, you had [Cleveland Cavalier] LeBron James, Beyoncé The second day Usher came through....

JAY-Z: People are coming in, LeBron James was dancing. I had to look at Jermaine and say, ''Man, are you comfortable? Can you create like this?'' But he was like, ''Nah, nah! I'm cool, I'm cool!''

NO I.D.: Jay was shooting people's beats down: ''If you don't catch me within three beats, I'ma phase out on you and not pay attention no more.'' So people was in there sweating. Looking back, if I played the wrong beat, I probably should have started selling cars.

JAY-Z: It's a relaxed atmosphere. Everybody jamming, playing music in between all that.

NO I.D.: I started making beats in the corner on my laptop. It maybe looked like I was perusing the Internet. Beyoncé was like, ''He don't make beats on there!'' But Jay could hear a little from the headphones bleeding through. He's like, ''Damn, it sounds like something, though!''

DJ TOOMP: Everybody's like, ''Toomp, let's see what you got.'' I played [my beat]; Jay was like, ''Hey, man. That's it. I want this one.'' I lit up, like, ''Oh, s---!''

JAY-Z: That's how I made [2001's The] Blueprint — [producer] Just Blaze in one room and Kanye [West] in another, and everybody else coming in and out the studio. You get into a vibe, and you just get totally engulfed by it.

DIDDY: He did this album in four weeks. It's a miracle. I've never seen an album done this quick.

L.A. REID: Jay is more inspired now [than on Kingdom Come]. What I admire is that it's not a motivation to sell a hundred million records; it's to create an amazing body of work. This one, who cares what it sells? It's not the measure.

JAY-Z: I like the challenge of making great music and putting it out to be pulled apart — I'm a glutton for punishment. You have to make it for yourself, but of course you want people to appreciate it. I'm not immune to that. I'm not jaded.