Last month, Drake took to Instagram to thank a collaborator who helped make "One Dance." "Strength and Guidance," the star wrote. "Shot my family @djlogansama for helping me."
Grime DJ Logan Sama stopped by the It Might Just Be That podcast recently and explained how the track came about. Since he's a DJ and not a producer, he was taken aback when Drake reached out to him. "I'm a collector," Sama declares. "I see a lot of people that have appreciation for stuff, they want to try and be creatives. Kanye West is a prime example. he finds something that he loves and then he wants to do it as well. That's how he works. How I work is I'm happy just appreciating from afar."
But he made an exception to the rule for Drake, and helped the star achieve his first ever No. 1 hit on the Hot 100. Read the whole story/listen to the podcast below; Sama starts talking about Drake after the six minute mark.
About a month ago, Drake followed about 20 guys from the U.K. music scene on Instagram all in one go: MCs, DJs... He followed me as well, and the next day I got a DM from Champagne Papi. It said, ‘Logan, text me, this is my number.’ So I texted him and said, ‘what’s going on?’… He said, ‘I’ve been watching your sets on Youtube, love the energy. We’ve been looking for different energies on the album. We’d love it if you could bring some of that energy to one of the tracks—we’re looking to switch up the vibe on one of the beats.’
I didn’t know what track it was, didn’t hear the track. I don’t produce. I’ve never made a track in my life. I’ve never produced ever. It was kind of weird for me… It was a cool weird thing that I’d never done before. And the whole ethos to my career is: I just wanna do cool shit.
When I said yes, within two days they flew the producer Nineteen85 out to London with the track, the parts, and everything. I went to meet him at the hotel; he played me the track… I’ve gone from not producing to sitting in a hotel room with the guy that made ‘Hotline Bling’ and ‘Truffle Butter’ playing me a 100 b.p.m. bootleg of Crazy Cousins. Mad surreal!
I’m a DJ and I only play grime! 140 (b.p.m.) is my realm of vibes. I’m thinking, I don’t really know what to do with this, but I’ll give it a go. Even if they don’t use it, whatever. It’ll take me an afternoon. Went and sat down with the thing, took all the stems, threw them in Fruity[loops] and messed around… after listening to it for long enough, I realized it was bashment speed. After grime, the music that I enjoy the most is dancehall/reggae/bashment, so I basically did that… the last 40 seconds of ‘One Dance?’ I basically produced that.
I wanna make it very clear: the record was vocalled and basically done already before I ever came into contact [with it]. The whole thing of Crazy Cousins and what have you; that’s all Nineteen85 and their team. He’s got precedent—‘Truffle Buttter’ is a very similar kind of formula, taking a house track, slowing it down.
