West's first career productions came on Chicago rapper Grav's 1996 debut album. West produced eight tracks on the album. Though the album didn't attract much attention, West would be producing for higher profile artists in the near future. Kanye started getting more and more recognition, during 1998 and 1999 he was producing for some well known artists such as Foxy Brown, Jermaine Dupri, Goodie Mob, and also the group Harlem World.
Kanye finally got his big break in early 2000. He started producing for Roc-A-Fella records. He produced the well received Jay-Z song "This Can't Be Life" off of the album The Dynasty: Roc La Familia. After producing for Jay-Z prior, West’s sound was featured heavily on Jay-Z's critically acclaimed album The Blueprint released on September 11, 2001. His work was on the lead single "Izzo", also on "Heart of the City" and a diss track against Nas and Mobb Deep named "Takeover".
After receiving commercial success for his work on Jay Z's album The Blueprint, he became the producer that everyone was trying to get to produce for them. In the years 2002-2003 he produced for artists Mos Def, Scarface, Talib Kweli, Nas, T.I., DMX, and Ludacris. He continued producing for Roc-a-Fella Records artists and contributed four tracks to Jay-Z's follow up album The Blueprint 2. After great success being a producer, West wanted to pursue a career as a rapper and solo-artist. Kanye struggled finding a record deal, because everyone saw him as a producer and didn't think he portrayed the "street image" prominent in hip-hop culture. Beginning his rap career Kanye rapped a verse on Jay Z's track The Gift and the Curse, in which he produced. He was later signed to Roc-A-Fella as a rapper.
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