Kanye West apparently considered the idea of Drake being the narrator for his 2021 Netflix biographical documentary Jeen-Yus.
In a interview on the Connection is Magic podcast on Friday (June 16), directors Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah spoke to host Samson Shulman about Ye’s thought process with regards to including the “God’s Plan” rapper on the project.
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“Drake seen it because they was sending teasers out to certain people,” Coodie said. “Drake seen one and when he seen it, he was like, ‘Coodie, ask Kanye,’ this was in the text. He was like, ‘Ask Coodie if I can narrate it. It’ll be big.’ Kanye was like, the fastest text chain ever, that’s what it said. I was looking like, ‘Oh shit, I’m on the text chain with Drake.”
He continued: “I just was like, ‘Nah, that wouldn’t be a great idea because of this, this, this, and this, and me and Drake was going back and forth about it. [He was] like, ‘Man, I just want to be a part, you know Kanye is my exception, and you know, we doing this for the dreamers. It ain’t about me and Kanye.’ And then Kanye hits: ‘Drake, main narration.’ ”
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Coodie then said that Kanye took a screenshot of the conversation with Drake and posted it on social media in an effort to let the public decide if the Canadian hitmaker should handle the narration duties. Once the Chicago rap icon started receiving backlash for his pending offer, he deleted the post.
“When we did the premiere, Kanye seen the piece and was like, ‘Man, I can’t believe Drake thought he could narrate this movie,’ ” Coodie stated.
Drizzy was an interesting choice considering that he and Yeezy hadn’t seen eye to eye for years prior to the documentary being released in January 2022.
Drake and Kanye West were working on a joint project together in 2017 before Pusha T exposed Drake’s son, Adonis, to the world with his scathing “Story of Adidon” diss track which made the relationship between both Grammy Award-winning artists sour from there.
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Drake repeatedly subliminally dissed his “Glow” collaborator on past records from his previous albums Scorpion in 2018 and Certified Lover Boy in 2021 and also had smoke for Ye on features such as Travis Scott’s “SICKO MODE.” Kanye responded with shots of his own in past songs and interviews.
Kanye West publicly explained his issue with Drake, dissing him during his Drink Champs interview back in November 2021 where he called Drizzy out for dropping bars about his wife Kim Kardashian.
Both men squashed their beef soon after Ye’s interview and appeared alongside each other for a Free Larry Hoover Benefit concert to raise awareness for prison reform. Their reunion was brokered by Rap-A-Lot Records CEO J. Prince, which he spoke about in Billboard during that time.
“I painted the bigger picture to Drake,” J. Prince explained. “I let him know that this is a moment and movement that can save lives. I believe by Drake and Kanye being an example, as two of Hip Hop’s top artists, that lives would be saved.”
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He added: “I believe this is going to be imitated and it’s important to be an example to those that look up to you and that meant something to Drake — just the life-saving event wrapped around putting the spotlight on injustice, prison reform, and my brother Larry Hoover. Everything is icing on the cake after that, because he never envisioned things like that. So I had to tap into a power greater than the anger or whatever these guys had for one another.”
