First Cut: Talib Kweli's Cold Rain

Cold Rain is a track I got from Ski Beatz, who has been one of my favorite producers since [Jay-Z's 1996 debut] Reasonable Doubt. he brings such an inspirational flavor. I've had it since I was working on [2007's] Eardrum; some pieces of music are so powerful that you don’t want to taint them by rapping all over them.

There are beats I have from [eminent late producer] J Dilla and [Reflection Eternal partner] Hi-Tek on my laptop right now that are incredible but I’ve never rapped to them because I didn’t want to destroy the sanctity or integrity of the track by adding my two cents to it. Cold Rain was one of those tracks that I’d written maybe four songs to before the one you hear on this album. It was so powerful that I had to keep revising what I did; the first draft wasn’t going to cut it.