Former Roc-A-Fella Employee Provides Context Behind Kanye West 'Jeen-Yuhs' Office Scene
The first episode of Kanye West’s jeen-yuhs documentary made its way to Netflix on Wednesday (February 16), chronicling his early days as a producer attempting to land a record deal as an artist.
One of the most memorable scenes finds Kanye — in the words of director Coodie — “bum-rushing” the Roc-A-Fella office in New York City and playing “All Falls Down” to employees at the label. But what seems like everyone dismissing his music in the footage doesn’t tell the whole story.
According to former Roc-A-Fella A&R assistant Wayne “Wayno” Clark, who currently serves as vice president of A&R at Quality Control Music, this was a regular occurrence. Wayno took to Twitter on Thursday (February 17) to provide some more details about the scene.
“Lmao the context behind this is he played this song in the office and did this with a camera crew like 10x,” he wrote. “how many times can you have a crazy reaction to something you’ve heard 10x it was kind of annoying at that point. Y’all also gotta realize this is at a time when phones ain’t even have cameras on em, he came with a camera crew all the time recording everything. People weren’t used to that, Chaka hair ain’t even done you think she was happy to be on camera?”
He added, “Ima stop talking but it’s amazing that people will tell me what happened in a video clip when I was actually there worked there and I’m in the damn clip.”
Lmao the context behind this is he played this song in the office and did this with a camera crew like 10x , how many times can you have a crazy reaction to something you’ve heard 10x it was kind of annoying at that point. https://t.co/65RjYoLDRN
— Wayno (@Wayno119) February 17, 2022
Y’all also gotta realize this is at a time when phones ain’t even have cameras on em , he came with a camera crew all the time recording everything. People weren’t used to that , Chaka hair ain’t even done you think she was happy to be on camera? ?
— Wayno (@Wayno119) February 17, 2022
Ima stop talking but it’s amazing that people will tell me what happened in a video clip when I was actually there worked there and I’m in the damn clip ???
— Wayno (@Wayno119) February 17, 2022
Wayno also gave a special mention to former Roc-A-Fella A&R Ramses Francois, crediting him as one of Kanye West’s biggest fans at the label.
“When people mention Kanye please mention Ramses Francois who was an A&R with myself & Travis Cummings,” he said. “there might not be footage on the doc but Ramses was one of Kanye’s biggest supporters at Roc & always took the time to listen to his music, Travis and myself as well.”
He continued, “Nobody at Roc disliked Kanye but it’s evident he didn’t fit in at a label that was mainly artists from the streets , but that’s exactly how & why it worked because he was so different it really stood out. Ramses doesn’t get any recognition because after Roc he didn’t do much in music but if you look in all those albums you’ll see his credits.”
When people mention Kanye please mention Ramses Francois who was an A&R with myself & Travis Cummings there might not be footage on the doc but Ramses was one of Kanye’s biggest supporters at Roc & always took the time to listen to his music , Travis and myself as well.
— Wayno (@Wayno119) February 17, 2022
Nobody at Roc disliked Kanye but it’s evident he didn’t fit in at a label that was mainly artists from the streets , but that’s exactly how & why it worked because he was so different it really stood out.
— Wayno (@Wayno119) February 17, 2022
Ramses doesn’t get any recognition because after Roc he didn’t do much in music but if you look in all those albums you’ll see his credits.
— Wayno (@Wayno119) February 17, 2022
The second episode of Kanye West’s jeen-yuhs trilogy is set to be released on Wednesday (February 23).