These two joints were actually the very first (“Timeline”) and the very last (“Intro”) songs completed for the album. It was crazy because “Timeline” is something we talked about doing back in the summer of 2005. At that time, we had already completed the “Listen Up” joint (from when we first met up the year prior) and were discussing the possibilities of creating and releasing music for a 12”. So I wanted to construct something with plenty of energy. Plus, it was a joint that as a fan of A7’s I could say to myself, “This is a joint that I would want to hear him rhyme on.” So after I gave him the beat, 7 held on to it for a minute…not because he was just sitting on it, but because he must have rewritten it about 25 times! 

In true perfectionist form, he didn’t like anything he did for it. 

It was crazy for me because I’m like, “Just lay it!” …I hadn’t even heard anything yet

…until July 2007 when he handed me a copy of a CD with “Timeline” written on it and said, “This is the 12” vinyl joint.” 

I was flying back into D.C. the same day, and threw the disc in…and what I heard was DOPE.  He sounded like he was going for blood on the joint. It was a great foundation laid for the album…we had our first song.

…When I would talk to 7, he would still say, “Maaaaaan, I’m not feeling my energy on it.”

“Nah man, it’s dope! You came off!”

On to rewrite #26…lol

He rewrote the entire song again and it took on an autobiographical life of its own. Talk about personal…he was talking about stuff in the song that I had no idea about. What a helluva song and idea to begin an album with. 

We made a list of DJ’s that we wanted to work with for the album. It was just a matter of placing them on the correct songs. Roddy Rod is a kat that I met a couple months before I moved out here to the D.C. area. From day one, he took me in immediately. So I hit him up and asked him to do the cuts and he took care of um with no problem. He found the “In Detrooooooit” piece and scratched it in the hooks which fit the theme perfectly…

Fast forward to the tail end of production. A7 sent me a text asking about doing an intro. I honestly hadn’t even thought about it because I thought that “Timeline” was a dope intro/song as it was. But when I went back home in September to take the photos for the album, we talked some more about it an agreed that an intro would fit as long as it was short and effective…

The music I used for the Intro was something that I have had in my head for more than a year now…This was the perfect time to utilize it. I wanted to ‘connect’ the two somehow, so I flipped the piano riff from “Timeline” and incorporated it into the Intro joint. 

A7 turned that joint around in less than 24 hours…

…The Overdue Process album resulted.