Pusha T’s Daytona is a masterpiece.
Despite initially pushing back against producer and G.O.O.D. Music founder Kanye West’s idea to cut the project to just seven songs, Push finally agreed and bodied all seven of them. From “If You Know You Know” to “Infared,” the Wrath of Caine rapper does not miss a single time, and despite not explicitly namedropping Drake on the album, “Infared” is the shot that started their now-infamous beef. (“Story of Adidon” might be the greatest diss track of all time but “Duppy Freestyle” doesn’t get the respect it deserves.) And while Daytona may have been overshadowed by Pusha’s brutal attack on Drake, it received a nomination for Best Rap Album at the 2019 Grammy Awards.
Rich Fury/Getty Images
Now, as 2021 winds to a close, Push is promising a project better than his 2018 effort.
Sitting down with Billboard ahead of his third closet sale with Grailed, a digital marketplace for menswear, the president of G.O.O.D. Music revealed that his new album is finished and “is currently in the mixing stages,” with some feature verses “still being finalized.”
Reportedly produced by longtime friends and collaborators, West and The Neptunes, Pusha T said the new album is better than Daytona.
“I think I’ve topped Daytona for sure” Push told Billboard. “One-thousand percent.”
Continuing on to describe how the album came together, Pusha pointed to Pharrell as his toughest critic throughout the process.
Scott Legato/Getty Images
“I was playing some raps for (Pharrell) in Miami and he was like ‘It’s cool, it’s good, but I think you’re gonna get mixed up with other people, and people thinking you’re all rapping over the same instrumental,’ and I was like ‘You disrespectful jerk, you serious?’ and he said ‘Nah man, you’re always gonna say the greatest things but you want to be different? We’ve got to make compositions.'”
Whether or not the new album is *actually* better than Daytona will be decided whenever the new project touches down, but knowing that Ye and Pharrell will have their fingerprints all over it makes Pusha’s predictions sound pretty believable.
What do you think? Will Pusha T be able to top Daytona? Let us know in the comments.