It’s hard to detach some iconic rappers from their drug of choice. Whether it’s Tyler, The Creator’s fascination with psychedelics or Snoop Dogg’s weed devotion, icons and their vices can be so intertwined that it is impossible to pull them apart. The same can be said for Pusha T and cocaine.
It’s not unjust, either, as T even recently released his song ‘Diet Coke‘ which makes several references to the white powder. Given his notorious connection to the drug, it seems fitting that we should go to him when trying to pick out the greatest cocaine anthem in hip hop history.
Of course, there are several fantastic songs to choose from and, during a recent interview with Complex, Pusha T went through them all to pick out the greatest coke anthem in hip hop history. First of all, he had to weed out some of the stragglers. While paying homage to songs like N.W.A.’s ‘Dope Man’ and The Notorious B.I.G‘s ’10 Crack Commandments’, he didn’t consider either for the top spot.
Other prominent anthems were pitted against one another as Pusha T also debated the inclusion of Gucci Mane’s ‘Bricks’ and OT Genasis’ ‘CoCo’. However, for the rapper, it was a couple of songs a little closer to home that deserved the accolade. Eventually, having gone through 16 different songs, T decides that it was between his and Clipse’s song ‘Grindin” and Jeezy’s anthemic ‘Trap or Die’.
Noting his position as one of the pioneers of the song style, T eventually landed on his and No Malice’s song ‘Grindin” as the ultimate coke anthem. “I didn’t know that it was going to blow up, but I knew it was something special,” Pusha explained. “When Pharrell made the beat, he called me and said, ‘Hey if you don’t get to the studio right now, I’m going to give this beat to JAY-Z.’”
He added, “‘And he was like ‘I’m talking about right now, you better get here in 20 minutes.’ I’m like ‘Listen, don’t trip I’m on my way.’ I go to the studio I heard it and I was like ‘It’s dope though, there’s something dope about it and I wrote it three times maybe four times but it just wasn’t right and I just finally found it.”
“Me and my brother did $2,000, $3,000, $1,500 shows for every drug dealer in the country for nine months until it finally hit,” Pusha T said. “Those are the only people that knew what ‘Grindin’ was about.”
Listen to Clipse song ‘Grindin” below.
