Jay-Z Reminisces On The 'Hard Knock Life' Album (VIDEO)

Whether you can believe it or not, it’s been 14 years since Jay-Z put out his classic ‘Hard Knock Life’ smash album.

It was an album that certainly made its mark in hip hop history, but it almost turned out to have a completely different sound than what was produced!

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The 42-year-old legendary rapper recently talked with MTV about making the album at his NBA 2K13 event in NYC.

He told the site:

“I wanted Dame Grease, ’cause he was workin’ on the DMX album. I was like, ‘Where’s the guy that’s making all of those songs?”

But for some reason Darrin “Dee” Dean, the Co-CEO of X’s label, didn’t link Jay with Grease, and instead put him onto his nephew Swizz. Jigga says:

”I’m like, ‘Nah don’t try and play me with the nephew’. He came in, he played those songs. We went from my office to the studio, we made four records … From there, the body of the album was in place.”

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That means that if Dame Grease was linked with Jay, the whole album could have been a very different one!

Check out Hov discuss the classic in the video above!