Jay Z told NPR:

There’s a song called “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” and it sounds like I’m saying, you can’t knock my hustle. But what – who I was talking to was the guys on the street because rap was my hustle and like, at the time street – the streets was my job.

“CKTH” was produced by Knobody, with co-production from Sean C and Dahoud Darien.

At the time of production Knobody lived at his mother’s house in Harlem, which happened to be located across the road from Damon Dash’s home at 1199. The three producers held residency there, spending hours every day making beats.

Knowing that Dame was working with a talented up-and-coming rapper, Knobody gave one of their beat CDs to the Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder—and he would soon return with Jaÿ, who was ready to rap over the ‘CKTH” beat. In an interview with SPIN in 2016, Dahoud Darien reminisced on the recording session:

[Jaÿ-Z] sat up there, listened to the beat. He don’t write no rhymes down, no paper. He’s sitting there, nodding his head for a little bit. You think he’s listening to the beat, but he’s just writing the rhymes in his head at the same time. And then he goes into the vocal booth and knocks it out like a champ.

Kareem “Biggs” Burke once told MTV News that:

Jaÿ didn’t want to rap over that beat, but I called him and said he should—because it would come out hot regardless.

Dame Dash has also said that Hov only agreed to finish the track when he told him he would get Mary J. Blige to sing a hook. The unfinished version of the track can be found on a 1995 five-track Reasonable Doubt sampler titled “Jaÿ-Z’s Listening Party.” The rough version of “CKTH” features a freestyle-like second verse that differs from the official version.