Lil Durk has recalled a recent conversation he had with JAY-Z that left him stumbling over his words.
In an interview with XXL, the OTF frontman spoke about bumping into the Brooklyn rap mogul at a Michael Rubin party last year, where Hov told him he looks to him for motivation.
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“I seen him at Michael Rubin’s party [in 2022] and he like, ‘Man, you motivate me,'” Durk recalled Jay telling him. “Man, fuck me up. I forgot my reply to him, ’cause it was on a walk-by. The reply ain’t make no damn sense ’cause it shocked me. I’m like, ‘What the fuck? Damn, that’s hard.'”
Durk’s anecdote came after he named JAY-Z as one of his biggest inspirations when it comes to building an empire of his own.
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“Shit, look what he did. Résumé speak for itself,” the 7220 rapper. “He used to be in this position. He used to be the underdog. The streets used to take him under. And he bossed up, nah’m sayin’? You ain’t see him post pictures every day tryna fit in.”
Lil Durk has referred to himself as Chicago’s JAY-Z in the past and is currently looking to help others while bossing up himself.
Last week, The Voice launched the Durk Banks Scholarship Fund at Howard University, where he provided two students with $50,000 scholarships each at the prestigious HBCU.
“For me, to boost them up and get them to the next level, it was like a no-brainer,” he told Billboard. “And this scholarship was a super-no-brainer for me. For me and my team, having my own scholarship is like a Grammy.
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“Change the narrative. It’s stuff we never got a chance to do or somebody never did for us. A lot of people don’t do it as far as the music era that we’re in. My team came together where we turned it up a notch. I wanted to come up with something that was different and impactful.”
Elsewhere in his interview with XXL, Durk shared more details about his upcoming collaboration with J. Cole, which is expected to appear on his new album The Voice 2.0.
“Definitely got J. Cole on ‘All My Life.’ It’s just a rap that’s just showing you what I been going through. What I been doing lately. Trying to change how I am,” he explained.
He also revealed that Dr. Luke, the pop hitmaker best known for working with the likes of Nicki Minaj, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry, produced it, and that Kanye West was his back-up choice for the feature.
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“We were just trying to figure out like what’s the right person to put on it, ’cause it’s one of those songs where if it’s not the right person to do the second verse,” he said. “I feel like Cole can bring the energy that I’m looking for to it. So, if it wasn’t J. Cole, it’d be [Kanye], but Ye, he tucked away somewhere.”
While fans are patiently awaiting the arrival of The Voice 2.0, Durk dropped a new verse on Swizz Beatz’s Hip Hop 50: Vol. 2 EP on Friday (April 21), collaborating with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie on “Say Less.”
