Lil Wayne's Dedication 5mixtape dropped early this morning. Naturally, it's packed with Wayne's outrageous rhymes over other people's beats along with a handful of high profile features, as is the standard for the Dedication series. However, one song on the 29-track mixtape already stands out and it's "You Song" featuring Chance The Rapper. Unlike the rest of the tape, the track is a completely original beat created by Nate Fox, Peter Cottontale and Cam.
We reached out to Nate Fox, one of Chance's go-to producers this morning to hear about how the song came together. Fox explains that "You Song" may have been the reason D5 was delayed, and how they created the track just last week.
Interview by Alex Gleckman (@andfeedingyou)
Congratulations, this a huge look. What is the story behind this record?
First of all, it was super, super random. I decided to come out to Chicago just to kick it for a little bit. I really didn't have a reason to be here. And Chance texted me saying "Come to the studio at 11." I get there at 11, and it's me and Peter, Cam, Chance, and Pat, and everybody's there. And he pulls us to the side and he's like "So....we have to make a song for Dedication 5...tonight." We were like, "Ok for sure, whatever you say." And Chance was like, "No, for real, they called me, they said I can send them whatever I want. Not like Wayne has a song for me, Wayne needs a song from me."
Chance was like, 'No, for real, they called me, they said I can send them whatever I want. Not like Wayne has a song for me, Wayne needs a song from me.'
Instead of giving him a beat that we already got, or already started on—we wanted to just make something absolutely brand new. It pretty much just started out like Peter [Cottontale] coming up with chords, and everyone just starts putting all their little pieces in. I found that Michael sample and started chopping that up.
What's the sample?
It's an a capella of MJ's "The Way You Make Me Feel."
So it all happened in one day?
Yeah we started at 11 p.m. and finished at 11 a.m.
When was this?
It was Wednesday night. A couple days ago. Actually, I'm pretty sure that's the reason that Dedication 5 got pushed back—because they were waiting on us to send a song. It was almost like it was supposed to happen. All the pieces have been kind of falling into place when it comes to anything, me and Chance related. I don't know why, but the universe is just like, "Yes, this is happening."
Lastly, what did you think of Wayne's verse?
I thought it was flames. But we were definitely thinking that's what would happen. People have this preconceived notion of what Wayne raps on these days. So we were all like, "Let's make something that will challenge Wayne again and force him to pull that Tha Carter II shit out of him," and I think we got that.
