Drake apparently had to go the extra mile to lock in one of the biggest hits of his career, according to one of his teammates.
On Thursday (January 18), The Baller Alert Show shared a clip from an unreleased interview with ATL Jacob, who produced Future’s 2022 blockbuster hit “WAIT FOR U” featuring Drizzy and Tems.
During the excerpt, the Atlanta-based beatmaker reveals that the prevalent sample used on the hook did not happen easily, which includes a sample of the Nigerian singer’s track “High.”
“Tems wouldn’t clear the song,” he recalled about the track’s post-production phase. “So Future pulled in — his relationship with Drake was like, ‘Can you get the song cleared?’ So Drake had to call Tems and be like, ‘Hey man.’”
The joint went on to debut at No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and win Best Melodic Rap Performance at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards.
“I talked to her at the Grammys,” the Georgia native said about his collaborator. “Personally, I felt like she was a little irritated with the ‘WAIT FOR U’ song.”
On the flipside, Drake recorded a song with Benny the Butcher years ago, which has yet to see the light of day. During an interview on The Breakfast Club last week, the Griselda MC said the cut got “lost in the sauce.”
In 2023, the 39-year-old went into more detail and even admitted he was “pissed” the track never received an official release.
“I was pissed, I’m not gonna lie. I was pissed, man,” he vented during an appearance on Conversation Lovers Only. “It’s a fucking Drake record! It was surely my biggest record … And the record’s just sitting in my pocket.”
When quizzed by host Joe Budden about why exactly it never dropped, Benny struggled to come up with an answer, but said he “understands” the mechanics behind music releases, especially when it involves arguably the biggest rapper on the planet.
“I don’t know [what happened] neither,” he replied. “I can’t speak for [Drake] and his team … I got schedules. I might do a feature for somebody and they be like, ‘Benny, we ready to drop this Tuesday.’ And I’m like, ‘N-gga, you ain’t dropping that Tuesday ’cause we holding off, I got this.’
“That’s the biggest artist in the world so I understand his release schedule might be hectic or he might have people that be like, ‘We can’t drop that right now because we doing this.’ I understand that. He’s the name, but he represents a lot of people that he works with and his moves affect a lot of people, so I understand that part.”
He also made it clear that he harbors no ill will towards Drizzy for their collaboration never coming out, and that he appreciates that the OVO hitmaker reached out to work with him regardless.
“I don’t take it to heart,” he added. “No way did I take it like, ‘Damn, he fucked me over!’ I swear to God, I don’t take it like that because this is muthafucking Drake, the biggest artist in the world. Even for him to hit me up personally, that lets me know where he at.”
