"The 'Power' joint that we did, it was actually a track that I already made and gave to Rhymefest, and he just so happened to play it for Kanye in the studio and he loved it. So when I got out to Hawaii, Kanye had already recorded to it."

A month later, S1 returned to Hawaii and heard "Power" again, this time with more "polish" added by 'Ye, who co-produced the song. However, S1 picked the sample that drives the record: a snippet of British progressive rock band King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man."

Initially, he didn't think West would be interested in the beat, because a drum break resembles a sound the rapper already visited on "Crack Music," a song from one of his previous albums.

But West showed a heavy interest in the song, and used it to fire back at his detractors: "I'm living in the 21st century, doing something mean to it," 'Ye raps on the first verse. "Do it better than anybody you ever seen do it/ Screams from the haters, got a nice ring to it/ I guess every superhero need his theme music."