Trina
Album: Diamond Princess (2002)
Notable Songs: “B R Right,” “Do You Want Me”
What?! You didn’t know Kanye produced for the Diamond Princess? Yup! While we mostly associated West with his soulful sound during the early 2000s, he was giving us Southern rap music like he was straight from the Dirty South. Not often discussed, Kanye has always expressed his love for the South, even referring to songs from the bottom of the map and citing J-Kwon as a favorite artist. His production was right at home for Trina. The song “B R Right” doesn’t stray much from Kanye’s sound overall, with the Miri Ben-Ari violin over a very familiar bass line. The song is eerily similar to “Overnight Celebrity,” which would be a bigger hit two years later.
The album track “Do You Want Me,” featuring Bathgate, is more in the soul sample wheelhouse we expect from Kanye, but far from what we expect from Trina. Sounding more like a leftover Jay Z and Foxy Brown collaboration, the song has a NYC sound that was popular at the time.
