President of G.O.O.D Music Pusha T has unveiled the first new track from his upcoming album King Push, titled Drug Dealers Anonymous ft Jay Z. It’s available now to listen to via Tidal and I highly recommend you spin it right now:
It’s slinky, it’s slick, and it’s exactly what you’d expect from a collaboration between the Push and Hov (which is great, considering ‘exactly what you might expect from a Hov/Kanye/Drake collab’ didn’t exactly turn out quite so well.) The wavy production sets a woozy atmosphere, making way for the two kings gathering around the fire and sharing tales of old. They might be hip-hop gods right now, but they were once both street peddling drug dealers, and they both got their start by rapping about it. Pusha raps more about coke than anything else, and Jay’s come-up as a crack dealer is one of the most well-documented autobiographical stories in the game.
The pair trade verses which detail their own stories in a way that feels a lot steelier and multidimensional than I expected. While this is obviously far from the first time we’ve heard either of them reference their past, not even Jay feels stale; if anything, it’s revitalising, and no doubt one of the realest drug tracks we’ve heard them on in years.
This also marks Jay Z’s second featured verse in recent weeks, following on from his fiery bars on the remix to Fat Joe and Remy Ma‘s All The Way Up. Both verses have absolutely been his best in years, it’s great to see him return to form after a questionable, if not downright boring output throughout the past couple of years.
Update: Read Pusha T’s annotations of Drug Dealers Anonymous lyrics on Genius.
King Push was preceded by King Push – Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude, which was released back in January (read our review here). We’ll keep you updated on album details as they unfold. If this single is anything to go by, King Push is set to become yet another excellent hip-hop release for a year already crammed with stellar bars.
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