producer Emile Haynie has gone from a name recognized by hardcore heads for his work with people like NYGz, DJ Premier, Ghostface Killah, The Roots, to placements of some of the best selling albums of the moment (Kid Cudi, Kanye West, Eminem, Lil Wayne). He's also signed as a solo artist to Interscope... i never saw this article from 2011 posted on here which features Emile telling the stories behind his work on 4 Ghostface songs and much more...
Ghostface Killah “Struggle” (2003)
Emile:“My relationship with Ghost came through Plain Pat. I knew Pat through C-Rayz Walz, who was this artist that Pat was working with. Then Pat got a job as an A&R at Def Jam, so the Ghostface project and The Roots project were two of his things. I would send Pat beats and he would give them to Ghost.
“I remember getting a call from Ghostface from some crazy number. My phone rings and I’m like, ‘Hello?’ And he’s like, ‘It’s Starks.’ And I’m like [Laughs.], ‘Okay.’ He’s like, ‘I got your beats, I wanna use your beats.’
“Ghost is one of my favorite rappers. I’m sitting there on the phone with him and the beat CD I gave him had ten beats, he played me nine beats and was like, ‘I want all of those.’ Obviously he didn’t use all nine, but he did use two.
“One of them leaked, which was ‘Struggle.’ He did this great song to this amazing beat but he didn’t put it on the album. He used the beat and did a Kay Slay freestyle and put it out. It’s not like a swing and a miss, but it’s like, ‘Foul ball!’ It wasn’t a home run. [Laughs.] It was like the sacrifice fly of records.”
Ghostface Killah "Intro" (2004)
Emile: “That was just a producer’s nightmare. [Laughs.] I made this fukking beat and the beat was incredible. I remember thinking, ‘This is so perfect for Ghost.’ Like, he’s gonna make this amazing album song over it.
“Ghost called me—he used to call me and shyt. And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I did it, but it’s the intro.’ I was like, ‘Can I hear it?’ So he sent it back to me, and it’s my beat that I thought was a masterpiece, ran through like some fukked-up filter, with Ghost just like talking on it for like forty seconds [Laughs.].
“I was like, ‘Dude, can you just do sixteen bars on it and we’ll put it on a mixtape or something? I just want to hear you rap on this beat.’ And he was like, ‘Nah G. This is starting off the album.’ So now I’m like the intro guy. I did the Cormega intro and now I got this Ghostface intro. That beat knocks, I don’t know what he put on it [with that interview intro]. I guess that’s the genius of Toney Starks.”
AZ f/ Raekwon & Ghostface Killah "New York" (2005)
Emile: “I bit the sample from Wild Style. I was still figuring out how to play keyboards and that was a really easy bass line. AZ called me and said he wanted to do a song about New York and I think I had been listening to the Wild Style Soundtrack, and I was like, ‘Maybe we should re-do that beat.’ And then I’ll put James Brown saying, ‘I was born in New York City’ on it.
”Then it started with Raekwon getting on the album. I knew Raekwon from doing some things with his group Ice Water Inc. and some other shyt that didn’t make his album. So Raekwon came to the studio and now I’ve got an AZ and Raekwon song. Next thing you know, Ghostface got on it and I was like, ‘Holy shyt! AZ, Raekwon, and Ghostface on my record!’
“The icing on the cake was DJ Premier doing the scratches on the chorus. From being such a big hip-hop fan, having a song with AZ, Rae, and Ghost, and Premier—who’s like the god of all producers to me—it’s pretty amazing.
“[Premier] has the best cuts in the world I don’t care what anybody says. He’s the freshest. I’ll take his scratches over any of these super-fast technical DJs. His shyt, you just can’t duplicate. They’re just perfect and they make songs and classic choruses with scratching. To this day, he’s capable of carrying a chorus. That was the stamp of like, ‘This is a banger.’
“Premier wouldnt’ve have done cuts on it if he didn’t like it, so that was kind of like me getting a co-sign on the beat from Primo. That was my hero. I used to sit and copy Premier’s beats. All my first beats were like terrible versions of his beats. I would sample his drums that he would leave open and try to make beats like him.
“It’s not a special beat but it’s a special song. The beat was just kind of good enough to showcase these dudes. It’s just an empty, sparse beat that sets the mood and feels very New York. I listen to it now and I’ll be like, ‘Man, I would’ve made that beat better.’”
Ghostface Killah "Pimpin Chipp" (2010)
Emile: “I don’t know much about that. It was an old beat of mine, and I don’t even know if there was any business done on that. It was one of these things where I got the call like, ‘Ghostface rapped on an old beat of yours.’
“Normally I would be like, ‘This is old, I’ve never heard it, I don’t want to put it out there.’ But the fact that it’s Ghostface, chances are it’s going to be pretty good.
“That was a pretty strangely concocted album. I don’t really know how it [was put] together. But the fact that it was Ghostface, I was like, ‘Alright cool, let’s do it.’ But I really had no involvement in the making of that. It was probably a beat that he had on some CD in some studio.
“It feels like they kind of just threw that album out. If I would have got in the studio with those three guys, and I would’ve had the opportunity to actually make a record, it would have been something good.”
Emile Tells All: The Stories Behind His Classic Records
Ghostface Killah “Struggle” (2003)
Emile:“My relationship with Ghost came through Plain Pat. I knew Pat through C-Rayz Walz, who was this artist that Pat was working with. Then Pat got a job as an A&R at Def Jam, so the Ghostface project and The Roots project were two of his things. I would send Pat beats and he would give them to Ghost.
“I remember getting a call from Ghostface from some crazy number. My phone rings and I’m like, ‘Hello?’ And he’s like, ‘It’s Starks.’ And I’m like [Laughs.], ‘Okay.’ He’s like, ‘I got your beats, I wanna use your beats.’
“Ghost is one of my favorite rappers. I’m sitting there on the phone with him and the beat CD I gave him had ten beats, he played me nine beats and was like, ‘I want all of those.’ Obviously he didn’t use all nine, but he did use two.
“One of them leaked, which was ‘Struggle.’ He did this great song to this amazing beat but he didn’t put it on the album. He used the beat and did a Kay Slay freestyle and put it out. It’s not like a swing and a miss, but it’s like, ‘Foul ball!’ It wasn’t a home run. [Laughs.] It was like the sacrifice fly of records.”
Ghostface Killah "Intro" (2004)
Emile: “That was just a producer’s nightmare. [Laughs.] I made this fukking beat and the beat was incredible. I remember thinking, ‘This is so perfect for Ghost.’ Like, he’s gonna make this amazing album song over it.
“Ghost called me—he used to call me and shyt. And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I did it, but it’s the intro.’ I was like, ‘Can I hear it?’ So he sent it back to me, and it’s my beat that I thought was a masterpiece, ran through like some fukked-up filter, with Ghost just like talking on it for like forty seconds [Laughs.].
“I was like, ‘Dude, can you just do sixteen bars on it and we’ll put it on a mixtape or something? I just want to hear you rap on this beat.’ And he was like, ‘Nah G. This is starting off the album.’ So now I’m like the intro guy. I did the Cormega intro and now I got this Ghostface intro. That beat knocks, I don’t know what he put on it [with that interview intro]. I guess that’s the genius of Toney Starks.”
AZ f/ Raekwon & Ghostface Killah "New York" (2005)
Emile: “I bit the sample from Wild Style. I was still figuring out how to play keyboards and that was a really easy bass line. AZ called me and said he wanted to do a song about New York and I think I had been listening to the Wild Style Soundtrack, and I was like, ‘Maybe we should re-do that beat.’ And then I’ll put James Brown saying, ‘I was born in New York City’ on it.
”Then it started with Raekwon getting on the album. I knew Raekwon from doing some things with his group Ice Water Inc. and some other shyt that didn’t make his album. So Raekwon came to the studio and now I’ve got an AZ and Raekwon song. Next thing you know, Ghostface got on it and I was like, ‘Holy shyt! AZ, Raekwon, and Ghostface on my record!’
“The icing on the cake was DJ Premier doing the scratches on the chorus. From being such a big hip-hop fan, having a song with AZ, Rae, and Ghost, and Premier—who’s like the god of all producers to me—it’s pretty amazing.
“[Premier] has the best cuts in the world I don’t care what anybody says. He’s the freshest. I’ll take his scratches over any of these super-fast technical DJs. His shyt, you just can’t duplicate. They’re just perfect and they make songs and classic choruses with scratching. To this day, he’s capable of carrying a chorus. That was the stamp of like, ‘This is a banger.’
“Premier wouldnt’ve have done cuts on it if he didn’t like it, so that was kind of like me getting a co-sign on the beat from Primo. That was my hero. I used to sit and copy Premier’s beats. All my first beats were like terrible versions of his beats. I would sample his drums that he would leave open and try to make beats like him.
“It’s not a special beat but it’s a special song. The beat was just kind of good enough to showcase these dudes. It’s just an empty, sparse beat that sets the mood and feels very New York. I listen to it now and I’ll be like, ‘Man, I would’ve made that beat better.’”
Ghostface Killah "Pimpin Chipp" (2010)
Emile: “I don’t know much about that. It was an old beat of mine, and I don’t even know if there was any business done on that. It was one of these things where I got the call like, ‘Ghostface rapped on an old beat of yours.’
“Normally I would be like, ‘This is old, I’ve never heard it, I don’t want to put it out there.’ But the fact that it’s Ghostface, chances are it’s going to be pretty good.
“That was a pretty strangely concocted album. I don’t really know how it [was put] together. But the fact that it was Ghostface, I was like, ‘Alright cool, let’s do it.’ But I really had no involvement in the making of that. It was probably a beat that he had on some CD in some studio.
“It feels like they kind of just threw that album out. If I would have got in the studio with those three guys, and I would’ve had the opportunity to actually make a record, it would have been something good.”
Emile Tells All: The Stories Behind His Classic Records
