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Source: Vaughn Ridley/Cook County Correctional Facility / Getty
Drake’s trusted producer Noah “40” Shebib released a statement following criticism over the use of an R.Kelly sample on the rapper’s latest album Certified Lover Boy.
The controversial snippet appeared on the “Hotline Bling” crooners new song titled “TSU.” On Sept 4, Shebib took to Instagram where he explained how the singer who’s currently embroiled in a contentious sex trafficking trial appeared on the LP.
“On a song called tsu at the beginning is a sample of OG Ron c talking,” 40 wrote in response to a news story posted on Instagram about the controversial sample. “Behind that faintly which you can’t even hear is an r Kelly song playing in the background. It has no significance no lyrics are present, r Kelly’s voice isn’t even present but if we wanted to use Ron c talking we were forced to license it.”
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The producer continued on, explaining why he felt the need to address the incident head-on:
Doesn’t sit well with me let me just say that. And I’m not here to defend drakes lyrics, but I thought I would clear up that there is no actual r Kelly present and it’s a bit misleading to call him a co lyricist. It’s kinda wild cause I was just reading “Baby Girl” by Kathy Iandoli and the recounts of some of that stuff is horrific and disgusting. Then I saw this post and just had to say something because to think we would stand beside that guy or write with him is just incredibly disgusting
Despite, Kelly appearing on Drake’s highly anticipated sixth studio album, it appears as though the questionable snippet did not have an effect on album sales for the Grammy-award-winning artist, REVOLT TV notes. Following its release on Sept 3, Spotify announced that the project broke a single-day record for album streams.
Music Business Worldwide reported that the album could have “accumulated 153,441,565 million global streams in its first 24 hours on the platform.” The LP is also projected to move 625,000 equivalent album units in its first week potentially landing a Number 1 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
