Tyler, The Creator has long cited Pusha T and the Clipse as major influences, but as Pusha pieces together his next project, the roles have reversed.
In an interview with Complex at Matthew M. Williams’ Fall/Winter 2023 Givenchy show during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris, the Virginia Beach native credited Tyler with inspiring his decision to team up with DJ Drama to release his first-ever Gangsta Grillz mixtape.
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“I just feel like to me, the Gangsta Grillz and the whole mixtape culture and scene is what I’m about. That’s the purest form of Hip Hop to me,” he said when asked about the eagerly-anticipated project. “The fact that Drama is having so much success, the fact that that’s what I love in Hip Hop, I want to merge those worlds and see what happens.”
He added: “I’m going to be honest with you, seeing Drama’s mixtape with Tyler and how they won a Grammy, I was like, ‘Man, mixtapes really won a Grammy.’ So I’m trying to be a part of that culture as well.”
Tyler, The Creator and DJ Drama forged an unlikely alliance in June 2021 when they joined forces on Tyler’s sixth album CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST. Inspired by Drama’s storied Gangsta Grillz series, the 16-track project was hosted by the legendary DJ while Sir Baudelaire tapped into his mixtape rapper mode.
“There’s a generation of people that love the Gangsta Grillz series for what it was, and then there’s also another generation that pays a lot of homage to Pharrell’sIn My Mind: The Prequel,” Drama told Complex following its release. “And Tyler is one of those [people]. I think this is Tyler’s ode to that project.”
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CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST was a huge success, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 behind 169,000 first-week units while winning Best Rap Album at the 2022 Grammys and Album of the Year at the 2021 BET Hip Hop Awards.
It also helped revive the Gangsta Grillz franchise, with the likes of J. Cole‘s Dreamville, Jeezy, Snoop Dogg, French Montana and Jim Jones following in Tyler’s footsteps and linking up with DJ Drama for their own mixtapes.
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As for Pusha T, the former G.O.O.D. Music president confirmed he was working on a Gangsta Grillz tape during a Twitter Spaces chat with Rap Radar‘s Brian “B.Dot” Miller in December.
He also seemingly touched on the project in a recent interview with XXL, describing it as “special” and a vehicle to both “restore the feeling” and show his peers that “you definitely can’t do what I do.”
“What I’m trying to do is restore the feeling in every aspect of this subgenre of music. And just of this cloth, of this taste level,” he said. “I’m just trying to make people realize how viable this is. To show people that I can’t do what you do, but you definitely can’t do what I do. That’s the whole premise behind the mixtape.”
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The upcoming mixtape will follow Pusha T’s fourth solo LP It’s Almost Dry, which topped the Billboard 200 last May. The critically-acclaimed project could see him further replicate Tyler, The Creator and DJ Drama’s success as it’s up for Best Rap Album at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
It faces stiff competition in the category, though, from Kendrick Lamar’sMr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Future’sI Never Liked You, DJ Khaled’sGod Did and Jack Harlow’sCome Home the Kids Miss You. This year’s Grammys winners will be announced on February 5.
