The Game Says Nas & Lil Durk Gave Him Their Blessing For "Drillmatic" Title

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Rapper The Game attends day 1 of the Radio Broadcast Center during the BET Awards '14 on June 27, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.
The Game says both Nas and Lil Durk approved of his album title.

The Game has drummed up much hype surrounding his next solo outing, though there's still no release date set in place. Drillmatic was initially due out in late June before being pushed back to July 1st, which came and went without the album seeing the light of day. Evidently, there are a few samples that need to be cleared for the project, as he suggested earlier this week. 

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The rapper offered insight into his decision to name his forthcoming albumDrillmatic, a portmanteau between the title of Nas' debut album and the subgenre from Chicago that has dominated the sound of hip-hop for the past few years. In a recent interview with HipHopDx, he explained that he initially gave the title to Durk, who never ended up using it. 

"Originally, I gave [the title] Drillmatic to Durk because he’s from the Chi and it has the whole drill thing,” he explained. “I text Durk like, ‘Yo, call your next album Drillmatic.’ And he was like, ‘Yo, that’s fire.’ And then two years passed and he didn’t call nothing Drillmatic so I was like, ‘I’ma reel that back in.'”

Along with Durk's blessing, Nas also offered The Game praise for his forthcoming project. Drillmatic will be produced by Hit-Boy, who has recently been on a spree of releases alongside the Queensbridge artist. 

"I pulled up to his studio, we did three songs that day, three songs the next day, three songs the next day and we had nine. He’s like, ‘We need a title.’ I was like, ‘Drillmatic,'" he recalled. "And then Nas was in the room the day after, on the fourth day, working on music with Hit. I ran the title by him and he blessed it, and so then I ran with it. Because I don’t want to step on no toes, especially not with people I look up to. So yeah, we got Nas’ blessing, we started to run it and then it took on a life of its own and now we’re here.”

We'll keep you posted on the release date for The Game's forthcoming project. 


About The Author
Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.
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