Eminem takes the hook on a beat by the late J Dilla, his first appearance on a Dilla production.
Eminem takes the chorus on Welcome, the new single from British-American rapper and producer IDK, which dropped at midnight on Friday, November 13. The same day, IDK announced a partnership with Eminem's Shady Records and Interscope Records.
The beat is by J Dilla, the producer born James Yancey, who died in 2006 from complications from lupus. Dilla's thumping drums give the track a menacing feel, and Eminem's chorus sits on top of it. Eminem did not record a verse, and it appears he wanted IDK to shine.
Despite the Detroit ties between Eminem and Dilla, Welcome is the first time Eminem has appeared on a Dilla production. IDK uses his space to show off his rhyming, slipping in an interpolation of Future's 2016 hit Stick Talk.
IDK said in a statement: "When I first started working on this music, I remember looking up at my ceiling and saying, 'Thank you'. I was speaking to Dilla because it felt like everything that could have been, in a way, started to clear itself organically." He added: "I knew this was an important opportunity and a statement for hip-hop itself."
The black-and-white video was shot in Detroit and directed by Vuhlandes. It shows IDK riding in a 2004 Cadillac Escalade, the same car Dilla used to own. Eminem appears alongside IDK, and the two take turns rapping in an apartment building hallway before IDK heads into town.
IDK's debut mixtape E.T.D.S. (Even the Devil Smiles) came out in January and featured RZA, Pusha T, the late DMX, MF DOOM, Black Thought and No ID. Welcome is the introductory single from his upcoming album, his first under the new partnership.
A mini-documentary, No Plan B, shows IDK in Michigan. He stops at a local record store where Dilla used to shop, and the proprietor tells him the late producer played hide-and-seek with her now-grown kids at the store.
IDK then visits Eminem at Effigy Studios, where the two talk about their artistic paths. "This was supposed to happen." IDK says in the five-minute doc. In his statement he adds: "The first raps I made it a point to memorize were Eminem raps."
Eminem's remarks in the doc give it its title:
"If you want it, and you want it bad enough, you can't have a plan B because you ain't got time for a plan B."
Hype for a possible Eminem collab surged earlier this week when IDK and Eminem posed for a photo together in the studio on social media.
No comments yet