Jay-Z, Kanye West Producer No ID Will Become A Household Name In 2010

J.Cole
Photo: Roc Nation

The O.D.: A Mixtape Daily Exclusive

Production legend No ID may not have a name as commercially recognizable as a Swizz Beatz or a Timbaland, but he's one of the all-time greats. No has laced all your favorites from Usher and Fabolous to Twista and Kanye West — and, most recently, his Grammy-winning turn with Jay-Z for "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)."

No seems destined to make 2010 his breakthrough year, with upcoming tracks for Kanye West and a man he began collaborating with almost 20 years ago, Common. Jay-Z's Roc Nation MC, J. Cole has also called upon the Chicago veteran to sprinkle his debut with tracks.

"I'm in with No ID right now. He's incredible. It's fun," Cole told us recently about his album. "I realized this last night when we was in there. My favorite producer, after I started producing [and] paying attention to producers, was Kanye. He came along right at that time. That's my heaviest influence on production. Being in with No ID last night and watching him work, it was like, 'Duh.' I been in with other producers, it don't click. It don't connect. It connects with him. I figure if I grew up looking up to Kanye, Kanye is cut from the No ID cloth."

With that said, Cole is leaning toward producing the bulk of the LP himself.

"I do want to do the majority of the project," he explained. "The negative side of being a producer and rapper — 'cause I'm a rapper first — the negative side of being a producer on top of that is I got real picky with beats. I'm trying to break outta that zone and maybe get on some beats I might not have rapped on before. I think the key of some rap artists is sometime you can make a beat that's not so hot, hot. But the production side of me is [saying], 'You not gonna get on that. Listen to those drums.' "

J. Cole's debut LP is due later this year.

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It's Hip-Hop and R&B Week at MTV News, and we're taking a look at some of the biggest up-and-coming artists and the heavyweights of 2010. Stay tuned all week for more!

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