Rick Ross Says He Played a Role in Kanye West and Pusha-T Connecting for G.O.O.D. Music

While Kanye West is the clear leader of G.O.O.D. Music, nothing goes in or out of the label without Pusha-T‘s stamp of approval. Yet, Push’s ascension to G.O.O.D. Music’s president wouldn’t have been possible without a move made by the biggest boss of them all, Rick Ross. 

Rozay gets candid about a lot of his personal and career moments in his new memoir, Hurricanes. One of the stories he recounted was how he connected Push with Ye. According to Ross, this encounter happened when he was in Hawaii working on Kanye’s magnum opus, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Here is how Ross says the deal came to fruition, per The Fader: 

It was during one of those breakfasts that Kanye and I got to talking about Pusha-T. Pusha was one half of the Virginia rap duo Clipse, who had just dropped their third album Till the Casket Drops. Kanye had been featured on the album on a song called “Kinda Like a Big Deal” but he never actually worked on the record. He’d recorded his verse on there for a T.I. song called “On Top of the World,” but somehow it had ended up getting placed on the Clipse song instead.

So Kanye didn’t know Pusha-T. But I did and I gave Ye my opinion on him. Somebody like Pusha-T could be a big asset in this environment and I recommended Kanye see what his label situation was too. I got them on the phone and the rest is history. I had already left Hawaii by the time Pusha got there but he got a few placements on the album and Kanye ended up signing him to G.O.O.D. Music.

Pusha made the official announcement at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, confirming the news in a backstage interview.

“I’m definitely signed with G.O.O.D. Music. I’m definitely doing my solo project through G.O.O.D. Music,” he said. “The Clipse is definitely coming with a new Clipse project. We’re definitely coming with the Re-Up Game project. The family is still here, man. It’s just all about G.O.O.D. Music, straight up.”

Ross also reiterates a story he told Complex News that at ComplexCon in 2017 about how his signature verse on “Devil in a New Dress” was created. 

“I’d already recorded a verse to “Devil in a New Dress” in Hawaii. It was a real soulful joint built around an old Smokey Robinson [sample]. Kanye had already released the song as part of his weekly G.O.O.D. Fridays series. Except he hadn’t kept my verse on there. But when I met up with Kanye in New York at the final hour of his album he had a new version of the song,” Ross wrote. “His engineer Mike Dean had added this mean guitar solo breakdown at the end of it that Kanye wanted me to come in after. But he wanted me to write a new verse. He didn’t like the one I’d done in Hawaii. ‘I know that you can do something better than that,’ he told me. That’s what he said. Then he stood up, turned around and walked out the studio.”

“It was good that he left. I needed a minute to process what had just happened. In all my years no one had ever asked me to rewrite a verse before. Even when I was a nobody ghostwriting for artists way bigger than me no one had ever said something like that,” Rozay continued. “I was shocked but I wasn’t offended. I wasn’t pissed. That surprised me too. I knew Kanye hadn’t said that to upset me. He was pushing me the same way he had been pushing everybody in Hawaii… So the ball was in my court. I could either take his request as disrespect or I could take him up on his challenge. I decided on the latter and two hours later I had another verse. It’s one that many of my fans consider to be the best of my career.”

Hurricanes is out now. You can purchase the book here.