{"id":652213,"date":"2026-05-19T10:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/652213\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T10:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:58:09","slug":"drake-producer-gordo-didnt-know-rapper-was-dropping-three-albums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/652213\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake Producer Gordo Didn’t Know Rapper Was Dropping Three Albums"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen Drake<\/a> surprise-dropped <\/a>three albums last week, his friend and frequent producer Gordo<\/a> was as surprised as everyone else \u2014 even though he\u2019d been working on the music for the last year and a half.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI knew it was going to be two albums,\u201d he tells Rolling Stone on a recent call. \u201cI didn\u2019t know it was going to be three.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Drake kept his entire rollout a secret, even from his closest collaborators. 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<\/a>, which include the anticipated Iceman, the unexpected Habibti, and the left-of-center Maid of Honour, which is where most of Gordo\u2019s songs ended up. The producer\/DJ\/artist, known for his earlier work on Drake\u2019s Honestly, Nevermind<\/a>, helped mastermind eight tracks on the LP, including \u201cHoe Phase,\u201d \u201cRoad Trips,\u201d \u201cOutside Tweaking,\u201d \u201cAmazing Shape,\u201d \u201cBBW,\u201d \u201cNew Bestie,\u201d \u201cTrue Bestie,\u201d \u201cStuck,\u201d and \u201cGoose & the Juice.\u201d (He was also behind \u201cWNBA\u201d on Habibti.)<\/p>\n

\n\tA 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. \u201cIt\u2019s super, super different and it\u2019s been this thing where I\u2019ve been the guy that he has done different stuff with,\u201d Gordo says. \u201cObviously, I\u2019ve heard the rap stuff but him doing all the crossover stuff with me, that\u2019s just the coolest thing about it.\u201d He describes Maid of Honour as \u201cjust different flows, different energies, different vibes,\u201d noting that it sees Drake test new territory. \u201cYou don\u2019t ever hear him getting on that type of stuff,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\n\tGordo describes the last year as a constant back and forth as he sent Drake beats to pick from. \u201cI 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,\u201d he shares. In between adventures like going to Berghain with Drake, which he detailed<\/a> to Rolling Stone last year, Gordo says he\u2019d work with his team to churn out new material for the rapper \u2014 though he didn\u2019t know where the music would end up. \u201cI would get about 30, 40 beats and I would listen to them and I\u2019d be like, \u2018Okay, cool. These are the records that I know Drake would really gravitate towards.\u2019 And 98 percent of the time, he would be like, \u2018This is insane.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tBut 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. \u201cI\u2019m not going to lie to you. As much we worked on them, a lot of these records were done by Drake,\u201d he shares. \u201cHoe Phase,\u201d for example, veers into new sonic terrain, morphing into almost an amapiano sound at one point. Gordo says all of that was new to him when he heard the final version. \u201cWe would give him these pieces and then like, the version that I heard on the album was a version I never heard before.\u201d The same thing happened on \u201cNokia.\u201d \u201cThat was a completely different song and then he pieced everything together and I was like, \u2018How the fuck did you think of that?\u2019 A lot of the album was like that actually. \u2018New Bestie,\u2019 wherever these switch ups are, it\u2019s a lot of him doing these switch-ups. It\u2019s actually pretty crazy,\u201d Gordo says.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also didn\u2019t know what collaborations and features would end up on the final LP. It was a surprise to him when he heard Popcaan on \u201cAmazing Shape\u201d or Sexxy Red on \u201cCheetah Print.\u201d He was especially into the latter song because of how it weaves in a sample of Peggy Gou\u2019s<\/a> house hit \u201c(It Goes Like) Nanana.\u201d \u201cThe Peggy Gou one is really cool because it\u2019s different. Fuck, I mean a lot of the records did their thing,\u201d Gordo says.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tNow that his massive undertaking with Drake is finished, Gordo says he\u2019s diving back into his own music, already working on a follow-up to his genre-smashing LP Diamante. \u201cAs an artist, I\u2019m a bit of a chameleon, right? I kind of do it all, but I have a lot, I\u2019m sitting on about 40 songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, he sees being part of Drake\u2019s latest sprawling chapter as an honor and feels especially proud that he got to work on the music. When asked what it\u2019s like to see Drake share his thoughts with fans after a three-year album hiatus and a massive rap feud <\/a>in between, Gordo immediately points to how well the records are being received: \u201cIt\u2019s been more than positive, right? So that\u2019s a win right there.\u201d He adds, \u201cThat\u2019s literally a win. I\u2019m so, so proud of him. He worked so hard and I\u2019m happy that I\u2019m just a very, very small piece into his legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Drake surprise-dropped three albums last week, his friend and frequent producer Gordo was as surprised as everyone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[3095,88,281290,216],"class_list":["post-652213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-drake","tag-entertainment","tag-gordo","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}