And it feels like, with each album or each guest feature your movement gets that much bigger. I don’t know if you watched Succession, but Jeremy Strong actually told us that he listened to “Moon” [Don’s interlude on Kanye’s album Donda] on repeat to get into his character’s headspace.
That’s incredible. “Moon” [was recorded during] a very, very, very, very special moment in my life. So, I understand.
You have two Travis features on the album. At this point, you two have enough songs together to make an album out of. Are we ever going to get a proper collab album down the line?
I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m going to tell you this: I love Travis so much. And me and him just, we grow together. So, I mean, you can just about expect possibly anything from us. I can’t sit here and be like, “Oh, we’re doing the album next year.” But I mean, I can just say this: me and Travis, it’d be a beautiful thing. And it doesn’t look too far away on the horizon. So, we’ll see.
“Glock” is incredible. Who came up with flipping the Whitney Houston sample that way?
I was in New York City and a close friend, our A&R Sickamore, had some producers over at his new studio, 3XL, and this guy played the beat. And when I heard it, I immediately sat right there down on the couch and came up with the melody right there. And I really don’t do that, too. It’s rare that somebody plays me a beat randomly, and I actually pull out my phone and record something right then and there.
That beat just made me do it. I was playing the beat in one hand, and in my other, singing the melody into my phone. I just could stop singing that hook. And by the time I got back to LA, where I record everything, I laid that song immediately.
Is it fair to call “Deep in the Water” one of your most personal songs to date?
It’s a tribute to my son coming to this world. A tribute to my girl, locking in. [The vibe is] just blues. It’s one of those things where you might just park the bike up outside of the road and chill out, take a seat and let that song just mellow out the whole situation.
I know it’s very fresh, but how has fatherhood been treating you so far?
It’s been amazing. I don’t know how to explain it. But just to watch my son get bigger and bigger over the small amount of time that he’s been here, him trying to crawl, and trying to smile, it’s crazy. We can just sit there and watch him for hours.
Did you do anything big for your first Father’s Day?
We had a picnic for the family, a lot of quality time. I’ve been trying to get this album out, so it’s been a real challenge, juggling, trying to get this piece of music out so I can really take time to do everything I can with my son. But now we’re finally here and I made it happen.
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