Despite being 23 years his senior, prolific producer No I.D. has a much more childlike air than Chicago indie rapper Saba, who is quietly pensive, if not a tad guarded. When we meet at No I.D.’s Los Angeles studio, the pair sit next to each other at a long desk. No I.D., 53, swivels toward us when he’s amused, making animated faces and cracking mischievous smiles. And even as the person who molded a young Kanye West and oversaw the production of Jay-Z’s most introspective album, 2017’s 4:44, No I.D. still considers himself a perpetual student — he and Saba, 30, are even enrolled in a photography class together as he works on a coffee-table book. “I never like to disrespect a genre, so, education,” he says, toying with…
