Westside Gunn is taking credit for the trend of hiding features on albums following Travis Scott‘s Utopia.
The Griselda rapper took to Twitter on Tuesday (August 1) to react to a tweet about features being hidden on projects, and how J. Cole and Scott mastered it with The Off-Season and Utopia, respectively.
AD LOADING...
“Hiding the features for a few days like this is honestly a win-win-win for the album’s hype, the fans, + the featured artists,” the tweet read. “J. Cole did it perfectly with The Off-Season and now Travis Scott’s done it with Utopia. I hope we start to see more artists doing this with their albums.”
Westside Gunn responded by claiming he’s been strategically keeping his album features hidden for years and that he’s “10 steps ahead” of the competition.
AD LOADING...
“I do this with every album lol,” he wrote. “I keep telling y’all I’m 10 steps ahead, I can’t wait to the day when MFs Wake up and see I’ve been doin everything y’all be claiming y’all loving yeeeears ahead.”
He added: “why u think I’m the [goat] and we’ll respected it’s bc I’m the 1, ask ya fav artist.”
When a Twitter user told Westside Gunn he’s “not even the best in Griselda,” he responded by saying being the best on his label wouldn’t be “smart business.”
“Thank GOD for that bc what would be the point of me owning Griselda if I was just gonna be the best one that Doesn’t sound like smart business,” he said. “see my approach was always for the artist 2 be better than me that’s why we have the best shit when everybody else want Clout #STUPID.”
AD LOADING...
The same person said they’re “personally taking Conway [The Machine]” over him, to which Gunn replied: “And that’s fine but my brother would spit in ya face for even saying that dumb shit in the first place we don’t fuck with ppl like you, y’all in the way and don’t understand ART.”
When Travis Scott’s Utopia arrived on Friday (July 28), only the song titles were made available on streaming services, leaving fans to dig to find the full list of featured artists.
However, the guest artists were later added to streaming platforms, confirming appearances from Drake, Beyoncé, Future, Playboi Carti, The Weeknd, 21 Savage, Young Thug, SZA, Kid Cudi, Swae Lee and more.
Westside Gunn also appears on Utopia on the song “Lost Forever,” which boasts production from The Alchemist and James Blake.
AD LOADING...
The Buffalo rapper is no stranger to assembling heavyweight supporting casts himself, with his most recent project, last year’s 10, containing collaborations with A$AP Rocky, Black Star, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Run The Jewels and others.
