Pusha T sat down with New York Magazine‘s Craig Jenkins to discuss the former Clipse rapper and G.O.O.D. Music labelhead’s new album Daytona, his relationship with Kanye West, his recent beef with Drake, and much more in a new interview. One of the more interesting tidbits from the feature comes during a discussion of Kanye’s inspired production for the album, which Jenkins compares to RZA‘s. Jenkins also remarks that the “mafioso” subject matter of Pusha’s raps bears some similarities to the trademark style of Raekwon. This suggestion prompts Pusha to reveal part of the process behind the creation of Daytona, which apparently involved Pusha creating a lengthy “song list” featuring some desired points of inspiration for production and rapping. The G.O.O.D. Music labelhead admitted that Raekwon was included on this musical vision board. Here’s Pusha:
Just to give you the backstory, in Wyoming, one of the first sessions, we had to make song lists,” explains Pusha. “So, I made a song list of 25 records or so. And, I remember what we really clicked at was, on my list was “Devil’s Pie” by D’angelo and [Raekwon’s] “Glaciers of Ice.” Within that, was “Incarcerated Scarfaces” [also by Raekwon] and a host of other records. R&B records. Faith Evans.
Given the fact that West produced Daytona, it seems probable that Pusha’s “we had to” here means that Kanye solicited Pusha to make a playlist for him. The selections on the list seem to have directly inspired the course of the ensuing sessions, which also yielded material for Teyana Taylor’s recent album. Pusha continues:
So, what did make it on mine and what was an amazing groove? During this one particular session, I remember we got maybe one or two of my records, “Games We Play” being one of them, and then we found five or six of Teyana’s album, probably like four or five. So, that was the process. when you say you hear him or you say he got in his RZA, so on and so forth, I just wanted to tell you how that even occurred.
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Read the full interview over at Vulture, and listen to Daytona here.
