DJ Khaled seems to follow his “No New Friends” mantra in his personal life. While the charismatic record producer surely meets new folks every day, he places a lot of value on his longstanding relationships. How else do you think he’s able to gather MCs like Rick Ross, Lil Wayne and Drake to contribute to his new single?
“It’s not a sales pitch. With Drake, first of all Drake’s my friend. He’s family; he’s a team,” Khaled told MTV News of his “No New Friends” collaborator.
On Sunday, MTV Jams premiered the throwback-styled “No New Friends” video, where Khaled and Drake reenacted a scene from what was supposed to be their 1996 lives. The actual single was released in April, but it took Khaled quite some time to get it done. “Last time I worked with Drake was two years ago [on] ‘I’m On One.’ It took me damn near a year to get that record done. It took me two years to get this record done,” he revealed.
“I’m On One,” like “No New Friends,” features Drake, Weezy and Ross. The combination was so good that the song hit #1 on the Billboard rap charts in 2011 and has since sold more than three million copies. But that type of magic isn’t easy to duplicate — especially with busy artist schedules. “Drake’s a real creative person, I’m a real creative person and sometimes it just doesn’t match that time to do what we gotta do,” Khaled said. “Not anybody can just work with a Drake and I know that. As many records as I put out in my game, I know that and I respect that.”
In the case of “No New Friends,” which will appear on Khaled’s upcoming Suffering From Success, the We the Best exec was able to take an unfinished Drake record and bring it home. “He had the skeleton and I was like, ‘Yo, I need that, let me go finish that.’ And then you see Wayne jump on it and Ross jump on it,” he explained. “It’s just good, good energy and it came out to be an amazing #1 record.”
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