Chicago producer The Gift samples James Blake’s, Life Round Here to create this beat, and his voice is sampled numerous times in the song. It’s a classic example of The Gift’s genius when it comes to creating spacey, rhythmic production for Rockie to spit on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlOmdyH_7Os

The “Youngin'” from the first line recalls how his brother had a similar story to him. When both felt like they were in trouble they turned to a gun for protection. A fate that is all to common in Rockie’s city, Chicago.

It’s too easy to get caught up in the drama of things. Rockie see’s his life differently; as he’s trying to make moves. So he ignores the irrelevant drama around him because he knows that it isn’t conducive to his success.

Diamond talked to Unkut about this record:

Large Professor

gave me the record, I said, “Yo, lemme hold it, I’ll give it back to you” and I gave it back to him. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album. I always went in the studio with a basic idea of what I was going to do – at least musically.

Diamond had a story to tell Unkut about Check One, Two:

45 King, good friend of mine, he gave me the record. I met The 45 King in 1989 at an Ultimate Force show, we were on the same bill as Queen Latifah. He was doing a DJ set and he played an old breakbeat by Melvin Sparks that only a b-boy would even know, so when I heard that shit I’m saying to myself, “Yo! Who the fuck is in here playing this shit?” This is an original Bronx park break! So I make my way over there and I’m like, “Yo! I feel you.” That’s how we met, at Hunter College in Manhattan. It was Slick Rick, Queen Latifah and the Ultimate Force.

Diamond gave praise to Unkut about Jazzy J’s work on I Went For Mine:

That was Jazzy Jay, my mentor. Jazzy Jay saved my life, on everything I love. When I met Jay I was already a DJ, but I was outside on the streets, fucking up, doing stupid shit. When I got around him it made me want to straighten up. Jazzy Jay put that together. I think I added the drums and Jay added the basic loops. A lot of people were unfamiliar with where that sample came from, so when they heard it [the flute part], they were like, “Oh shit!”

Diamond spoke to Unkut about how A Day In The Life was created:

That was recorded before “Punks Jump Up…” I got that record from my uncle Kevin’s record collection. I invited Sadat X and Jamar and Puba I believe, I think just Jamar and X showed up. We just vibed and we knocked it out. Shane Faber played accompanying keyboard on that track later in the process.

Diamond talked with Unkut about I’m Outta Here:

Growing up around my block, there was a movie theater called The Prospect, and much more worse shit jumped off in that movie theater than I rhymed about. Even though I was telling a story, you would see shit like that all the time in the South Bronx in the early to mid 80′s. That’s just a fact! We’re talking about the Reganomic years. Ronald Regan‘s solution for low-income people was to give ‘em some blocks of cheese and some fuckin’ butter! They had the wolves out there starving, so I was just rhyming about shit I was seeing. In the early 80′s it was not uncommon for people to talk during the movie – I mean really sit there and talk to the movie screen like it’s a person! Sometimes it would be annoying and dudes would say something, “Shut the fuck up! I wanna watch the movie!” For the remix I added some extra drums – you can tell by the pattern, it’s a bit different.