Before Pusha T’s controversial “Exodus 23:1” caused some ruckus online, MTV caught up with Pusha and The-Dream at an Atlanta studio where they spoke on how the track came about.

It really started with this beat [from] Rico. We were like, ‘Yo, Dream would just sound amazing on the record, period.’ So we sent it out and it came back so quick. Dream was like, ‘Man this is one of the ones,’ ” Pusha recalled. “Personally, I never thought the record was going to come back that quickly. I was in New Orleans somewhere and Rico was like, ‘Aye! Dream did it — he on the phone!” I thought, “OK, wait a minute this might really be something.”

“I always personally felt like he was one of the best at what he did, period,” Dream said. [There’s] lots of guys that are great from a rap standpoint, but in songs they’re not as great. Sometimes [you need to say], ‘Hey, move this part here and this is your hook,’ or ‘Let’s write about this, or let’s tap that emotion and let’s not rap past the emotion of where it is.’ “ –Rap Radar