In honor of performing his 2005 release Be in its entirety at Rock the Bells 2011, Common recently spoke to Reebok as part of its Reebok Classics series about the creation of the album. During the interview, Com explained that a chance recording session with Kanye West led to the first song for the LP, “The Food.”

“When we recorded Be, a lot of the recording sessions started first with me just saying, ‘Ye, let’s go in the studio.’ I started spending my own money at first, just saying, ‘Man, let’s go in until we get the budget cleared.’ The first actual beat I got from Kanye, I walked into the studio and he was producing for someone else, but I felt like it was divine that he had this beat up that he was playing. He was like, man, ‘That beat is cold.’ He just gave it to me. He was like, ‘Take it home, hurry up, get out of here before the artist come!’ And that was ‘The Food.’ That was the first song we recorded together. As soon as we recorded the song, it was like our team formed.”

Watch the full interview below.

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