The Gangsta Grillz series made DJ Drama the undisputed king of mixtapes. Although there were several legendary collaborations, Drama recalled a time when he missed out on working with a budding Travis Scott.
During a recent conversation with FakeShoreDrive's Andrew Barber, DJ Drama explained that Scott's iconic 2014 mixtape Days Before Rodeo was set to be part of the Gangsta Grillz collection before Kanye West stepped in.
"[Days Before Rodeo] was supposed to be a Gangsta Grillz," Drama told Barber, per Genius. "[Travis] called me and he was like 'Yo, I wanna do a tape.' He wound up telling me that Kanye talked him out of making it a Gangsta Grillz tape."
Days Before Rodeo ended up being the mixtape that slid Travis Scott into the public eye. The project contained cult classic tracks like "Mamacita," "Drugs You Should Try It," and "Skyfall." It also boasted appearances from Young Thug, Rich Homie Quan, Migos, T.I., and more. In hindsight, Kanye proved to be right as Days Before Rodeo set the stage for Trav to drop his debut album Rodeo.
Missing out on being attached to Days Before Rodeo wasn't the only could-have-been Drama recounted to Barber. Drama said OutKast was set to do a Gangsta Grillz mixtape as well before their movie Idlewild was released.
"That's how I ended up getting 'Da Art of Storytellin' record because they called me and was like 'Listen, I know we were supposed to do the tape but we don't really have time to do it. So, because we agreed to do it, how about we give you a record for your album,'" Drama said. "But originally we were going to do a whole project together."
Watch Andrew Barber's full conversation with DJ Drama above.
