Gordo Says He Had No Idea Drake Was Dropping Three Albums

The producer also didn't know how "Hoe Phase" would sound before Drake spliced it together himself When Drake surprise-dropped three albums last week, his friend and frequent producer Gordo was as surprised as everyone else — even though he’d been working on the music for the last year and a half. “I knew it was going to be two albums,” he tells Rolling Stone on a recent call. “I didn’t know it was going to be three.” But Drake kept his entire rollout a secret, even from his closest collaborator

That meant that on May 15, when the album trilogy swept the internet, Gordo did what most fans did: He spent time listening through the three projects , which include the anticipated Iceman , the unexpected Habibti , and the left-of-center Maid of Honour, which is where most of Gordo’s songs ended up. The producer/DJ/artist, known for his earlier work on Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind , helped mastermind eight tracks on the LP, including “Hoe Phase,” “Road Trips,” “Outside Tweaking,” “Amazing Shape,” “BBW,” “New Bestie,” “True Bestie,” “Stuck,” and “Goose & the Juice.” (He was also behind “WNBA” on Habibti .) A lot of the songs show another side of Drake, moving in more electronic and experimental directions that capture the unconventional, club-driven sounds Gordo has made his signature. “It’s super, super different and it’s been this thing where I’ve been the guy that he has done different stuff with,” Gordo says. “Obviously, I’ve heard the rap stuff but him doing all the crossover stuff with me, that’s just the coolest thing about it.” He describes Maid of Honour as “just different flows, different energies, different vibes,” noting that it sees Drake test new territory. “You don’t ever hear him getting on that type of stuff,” he explains. Gordo describes the last year as a constant back and forth as he sent Drake beats to pick from. “I was just sending him stuff and then he would just hit me back with what he liked. Every couple of days, he would send stuff back,” he shares. In between adventures like going to Berghain with Drake, which he detailed to Rolling Stone last year, Gordo says he’d work with his team to churn out new material for the rapper — though he didn’t know where the music would end up. “I would get about 30, 40 beats and I would listen to them and I’d be like, ‘Okay, cool. These are the records that I know Drake would really gravitate towards.’ And 98 percent of the time, he would be like, ‘This is insane.’” But one of the biggest surprises is that even though Gordo shaped up most of the beats with his team, he says Drake ended up going into the production himself and splicing together a lot of the tracks. As much we worked on them, a lot of these records were done by Drake,” he shares.

Key points

• That meant that on May 15, when the album trilogy swept the internet, Gordo did what most fans did: He spent time listening through the three projects , which include the anticipated Iceman , the u…
• The producer/DJ/artist, known for his earlier work on Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind , helped mastermind eight tracks on the LP, including “Hoe Phase,” “Road Trips,” “Outside Tweaking,” “Amazing Shape…
• “It’s super, super different and it’s been this thing where I’ve been the guy that he has done different stuff with,” Gordo says.
• “Obviously, I’ve heard the rap stuff but him doing all the crossover stuff with me, that’s just the coolest thing about it.” He describes Maid of Honour as “just different flows, different energies…
• “You don’t ever hear him getting on that type of stuff,” he explains.