Some collaborations often catch fans off guard, and Lil Yachty and James Blake's upcoming joint album, Bad Cameo, can fall into that category. Yet, it hasn't been uncommon for Blake to partner with Hip Hop artists throughout his prolific career. He has worked with artists like Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Vince Staples, Chance The Rapper, and Frank Ocean, and was featured on the Black Panther soundtrack. Yachty's catalog of hits speaks for itself, and these two decided to band their skills together for what they hope is an unforgettable project that both say inspired their best songwriting.
"As soon as we started making songs, and I think partly it was to do with this conversation we had pretty early on where Yachty was like, 'James, you've made enough,'" Blake told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. "'You've worked on enough Rap records. Let's make something completely different.' And I was like, 'Totally, what do you feel like working on?' And I just started playing him….it's not that I assumed we'd make a Rap vocal collab record. I just didn't know what he wanted to do."
"So when he said that, I was like, 'Great, obviously the door's open for any type of thing I'm going to play him," Blake added. "So, I just started playing him ambient things. Things I'd been working on actually from a similar era to the Robots' era stuff. If you look around here, this is all just since that. I've made all that stuff on and I was playing him some stuff like that. Then, he had a couple of things that he brought in that kind of matched that mood."
Both Blake and Yachty expounded on Bad Cameo, detailing why they were drawn to work with one another in the first place. Read through a few highlights below, including lessons Yachty learned from Blake and why Blake almost swore off collaborations altogether before this partnership arose. Additionally, make sure to stream Bad Cameo when it arrives this Friday, June 28.
James Blake On Why He Wanted To Work With Lil Yachty
The thing that I think it was for me—because I already respected you as an artist in the genre you started in. To me, the music you were making already was amazing. And I think lyrically you stood out energetically. You stood out, and I just felt like every time your voice came on something, it was like, oh, I just knew there was going to be a level of quality to it. I also got a sense early on that some of the kinds of genre associations and the kinds of ways that some people felt about that genre were reflecting on you unfairly. And I could see that there was someone unbelievably special who just happened to make this kind of music. And it's also music that I love.
Lil Yachty On What He Learned From Working With James Blake
Lil Yachty: I think I have a better understanding of quality and I feel like he pushed me to—he didn't push me physically. Like, told me, 'Do better.' But just being around and experiencing him work pushed me to try to have reason in my songwriting and to just live up to the quality of James’s catalog. I didn't want to put a project out and then his fans be upset with me. Kind of slaughtering all of the—
James Blake: That could never happen.
Zane Lowe: No, but I do understand what you're saying. Pushing yourself to connect to the music in a way where—
Yachty: Just to be as great as everything that he has done. No, seriously, I wanted to make sure he knew how serious I was. Because I, myself, have worked with so many artists who are just so unserious. They don't understand true effort or just don't apply themselves. It's so easy to say, 'Yeah, man, let's make a project, man, let's work. Let's do an album. Let's do a mixtape.' But to genuinely apply yourself, show up, and devote time because it's my time and his time that we spent to create this child. [I] just really wanted to show that I was there and this was as important to me as it was to him.
Lowe: It says less about the value it creates after the fact and more with actually just being completely present in the process.
Yachty: Well, we just never once had a conversation about what happens after. It was always just what we liked and what we felt was right. We never was like, 'Oh man, we going to go number one, or...' We never had that conversation. It's just like we went with it.
Blake: We knew that wasn't going to happen because I'm involved. But we definitely had conversations about the ideas of the—
Lowe: The British humility at play here.
Yachty: Well, I think he's going to possibly help me get my Grammy.
James Blake Swore Off Any More Collabs Before Working With Yachty
Blake: I'd say before even before we even met, I decided not to do many more collaborations.
Lowe: What was the purpose behind it? What was the thinking?
Blake: Well, my thinking was in most sessions, I don't enjoy it that much. I think, there's a lot of great artists, but are they going to make you laugh? Are you going to actually have a good time? Are you actually going to form a friendship that is like, you actually want to see them come into the studio? I mean, there's a certain point in your career where you're like, 'Well, I don't have to do this.' I'm not trying to cross-pollinate fan bases and get—there's no A&R moves anymore. I'm just making music. Not that there really ever was, but now I'm like, 'How can I preserve my space? How can I be only have fun?' And we just, I mean, our sessions are 99 percent unserious. This is probably the most serious conversation we've ever had, I think.