When Sean “Diddy” Combs requests a producer’s beatmaking abilities in the wee hours of the morning, sleep can wait. Such was the case for Alex Da Kid. The 26-year-old Londoner, who calls New York home, literally “jumped up out the bed” Soulja Boy-style after receiving a call to head to the rapper’s studio, Daddy’s House, and work on material for his forthcoming album, Last Train to Paris.

“I didn’t even know I was gonna do a session,” says Alex, currently riding the success of B.o.B’s “Airplanes.” “I got a call at 3 a.m. from Sean Garrett. Sean was working with [Diddy]. He’s like, ‘Come to the studio.’ So I went. I was kinda half asleep.” But weariness didn’t perturb the “Love the Way You Lie” hitmaker from crafting tunes to the Bad Boy CEO’s liking. “Eight beats later, Diddy was like… Let’s put it this way, he would just tell me random things,” Alex reveals to staging-rapup.kinsta.cloud.

According to Alex, Diddy wasn’t shy in expressing quirky suggestions for the sound of a potential hit record. “[He was] like, ‘I want the beat that makes me feel blue,'” he continues, “[That’s] blue as in the color.” While disco balls shined in the dimly-lit studio, the “Hello Good Morning” artist even went as far as asking for a tune with race and location in mind. “[Diddy] said to me, ‘I want a beat that makes me feel like a white man in a basement in Atlanta,'” shares Alex, who’s uncertain if any of the records he worked on will make the final cut of Last Train to Paris. “Diddy’s hilarious.”

–Georgette Cline