Famed super producer, No I.D., shares memories of helping create JAY-Z’s 13th studio effort 4:44 on the album’s anniversary with TIDAL.  During the interview, he broke down the process of creating each song and even explained how Jay was given co-producer credits on half of the project. “On the proper 10-song album, Jay is credited as co-producer on five of those songs because he basically made a playlist of songs that he listened to at his house and it was in the spirit of the soundtrack that he wanted to capture.” he said. “So I just started sampling songs off of that playlist that he gave me.”

While discussing the song “Legacy”, No I.D. revealed that the album was originally supposed to be seven songs long. “This might have been the second or third record we did.” he said. “He [Jay] immediately said this would be the outro. Ironically, we were trying to do a seven-song project. The irony of it all, right?”, likely referring to Kanye West‘s recent releases of seven-song albums.

The Chicago-native credits Beyoncé for giving Hov the courage to use the Sister Nancy-sample that featured reggae star Damien Marley on “Bam.”

“I credit Bey for helping us keep that because one day she came in — and she said a lot of things that day — but she was like, “Man, just give me that beat. You messing around.” And I saw the smoke coming out Jay’s nostrils and the next morning he had the raps.”

He ended by saying, “It just shows where we are as artists. We know what we like; we know what we’re doing. I wanna see where this album is at at the 10-year anniversary. I really believe it’s gonna be like fine wine.”

Check out the full interview here.