‘Juan Epstein’ aka the duo of Peter Rosenberg and Cipha Sounds sat down with producer/rapper Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie for a chat about his hand in Kanye West’s career. Angelettie, also known as The Mad Rapper, chronicled his relationship with West from its conception in the late 90s when he served as Yeezy’s manager and co-producer. He shared that their partnership would eventually sever due to West’s dreams of becoming a rapper.
“He probably would’ve did well if I could let him rap, because he had a label deal and he was who he is today: very cocky, very arrogant, but confident and talented, that’s what I saw. Talented kid,” D-Dot said of West.
D-Dot shared that he was responsible for West’s signing to Roc-A-Fella through a series of his own connections.The two later endured a beef, which according to D-Dot stemmed from West’s description of their arrangement. He explained to Hot 97 where his anger for West began.
“The beef came in when he started using this term called ‘ghost producer,’ which I hate, which I felt was disrespectful because ‘ghost’ means you’re not seen or heard,” he said. “Not only did he get credit, he got money; he got signed to Roc-A-Fella as a result of it. So how are you ghost?”
D-Dot also admitted in the interview that he had threatened physical harm against West in light of their beef. He shared an encounter he had with West regarding the omission of a segment on VH1’s ‘Behind the Music.’
“He ran up on me and apologized, but I didn’t know what he was apologizing for. And he said ‘Yo, they cut you out, I didn’t mean to cut you out, but they cut you out.’ And I was like ‘What are you talking about,” he recounted. “Because they did a Behind the Music on Kanye West and he went from No I.D. to Roc-A-Fella. Three years are missing from that story. That’s the D. Dot story and it’s not there.”
Angelettie expressed an overall dislike for the way his role in West’s career had been portrayed, but admitted to the show’s hosts a respect for his accomplishments.
“That was disrespectful. But once again, I’m the guy — I know he’s a talented kid. I know he’s eccentric too. But he deserves every accolade he gets ‘cause he works hard for it. He was a savage when he was under me.”
Check out the full interview here.
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