Kanye West is notorious for his strict studio rules. Before he imposed a dress code for himself and all of his Donda collaborators, Ye has run a tight ship while crafting his magnum opus, 2010’s My Dark Twisted Fantasy out in Hawaii. The Chicago artist plastered the walls with signs, reading, “No tweeting,” “No pictures,” and “No hipster hats.” 

Breaking these rules come with great consequences. According to Big Sean, he was advised by Kanye and JAY-Z  to fire one of his friends after breaking one of Kanye’s studio rules during the recording of MBDTF. 

In a clip from his upcoming episode with N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN on Drink Champs, the Detroit emcee recalls his friend secretly snapping a picture of Sean, Ye, Hov, and Beyonce in the studio and uploading it to social media. When the word got back to Ye and Hov they ordered Sean to fire his friend on the spot. 

“We down there working on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in Hawaii,” he remembered. “I’m out there playing my role, but I brought my man with me in case I needed anything, he was going to help hold me down … It’s good to have a support system, to have one of your homies there when you trying to contribute.

“So anyway, I’m in a studio — it was me, Ye and Hov. Even then, I wasn’t trying to be thirsty or sneak a fucking picture. I’m here just taking it in mentally. He ends up taking a picture of all of us in the studio. Didn’t tell me. He ends up tweeting it, and it gets picked up on AllHipHop and things like that.”

When the photo came back to Ye and Hov, they initially thought Big Sean was responsible. After explaining the situation, the two legends pressured Big Sean to fire his friend as his assistant for breaking the studio rules. 

“I don’t know who saw it, but it got to either Ye or Hov’s attention, and they thought it was me!” he said. “It didn’t make any sense because I wasn’t even really on at that time, and it was like, ‘Kanye, JAY-Z, Beyoncé, Big Sean.’ People were like, ‘Who the fuck is Big Sean?!’ It looked like I planted this shit.”

He continued, “When we talked about, I told them, ‘I don’t even know what the fuck you’re talking about.’ I explained to [Kanye] who it was, and he was like, ‘You gotta fucking fire him. We’ve all done this, we’ve hired the people that we love. But people were mad at you thinking that you were being thirsty. And it was your mans.’

“So I told [my friend], ‘I’m in a position where it’s Ye and Hov saying you gotta go. I’m sorry bro, we gotta figure out something else.'”

Big Sean explained despite having to let his friend go, his friend ended up just fine, finding a successful path of his own. 

“But it ended up being a blessing in disguise,” he said. “He ended up transforming his life and being probably way more successful than he would’ve been in the position he was in. He ended up being a teacher and ended up impacting a lot of people’s lives and doing amazing, wonderful things.”