New York rapper Dave East teamed up with Philly native Lil Uzi Vert on the track "Don't Try Me" back in November. The top-notch production that underscored the vocal delivery from each emcee built up this notion that maybe East would take a step back from his own style, which is focused way more on storytelling through lyrics, and try his hand at integrating himself into the Soundcloud archetype of rap music. However, as he told Ssense, he's actually not really feeling the finished product.
In a long-form interview with the Canadian publication, East went into detail as to why he's not the hugest fan of "Don't Try Me." "They hot. They hot as s**t," he said of his XXL Freshman Class contemporaries, which include Lil Yachty, 21 Savage and Uzi. "But us making music together is a stretch [...] I just did a track with Uzi, but I’m not the biggest fan of the song," he continued, "just because that ain’t me." It seems like at least some of the trouble has to do with the process itself.
"We all could get super high, get an Air BnB, listen to Metro Boomin, or one of these beats that’s killing the club, but that don’t really take too much," East added. "For an artist like me that’s lyrical, that likes to write and do research on the dudes before me, I just really want to talk some s**t and have you listen while the others are turning up. Future ain’t popping 40 pills a day and drinking all that. But he’s saying it – ‘I’m on my 15th molly’—and the people that are going to go try that s**t are going to end up in a f**king coma somewhere.
"I feel like when I grew up music was aimed toward the hustlers, the dude that was selling the drug, not the user," he contemplated. "Now it’s more the junkie. This is the clientele side! Before you wanted to be that dude who had it and was getting his money. Now it’s the fiends ruling it!”
Check out the full interview to read more about Dave East's time spent playing basketball alongside Kevin Durant and his reaction when he found out Nas was a fan of his work.
