T.I. Speaks on Unreleased Verse to Kanye West’s “Drive Slow”

Apparently T.I. and Kanye West linked up on wax before their 2008 All-Star collaboration, “Swagger Like Us.”

Music gives artists opportunities to collaborate in order to form the best possible result. Within Hip-Hop we’ve seen some of the best come to fruition. On the other hand, some start as a collaboration, but don’t always make the final cut.

According to T.I., he experienced this on one of Kanye West’s classic album cuts, “Drive Slow.” The Late Registration track served as the final single to Ye’s legendary sophomore album. It featured the People’s Champ, Paul Wall, Ye’s long-time friend, GLC on the final audio verse. Tip was expected to be on the track that made Paul Wall’s album as well, but Yeezy apparently pulled the plug.

“Kanye called and asked me to get on it,” Tip told HipHopDX. “He said he needed a verse for it. And the strange part about it, right, the song was already five, six minutes long. I was like, ‘Ye, what you want me to do here? He’s like, ‘Man, don’t worry about it, I just need you to do a verse.’ I was like, ‘Alright, brother.’ So I did a verse for him, then he shot the video.”

While Tip made his cameo in the video to spit his verse, he was still fairly disappointed for not making it to the final album version.

“I was like, ‘What are you going to do with this mini movie? This is a short film.’ Know what I’m saying? That was my first time working with [director] Hype Williams and I love the record. I didn’t hear it much played in its entirety. I’ve never heard anywhere — any club, any radio station — the whole thing played from start to finish and I’m the last the verse.”

Check out the full interview here.