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Quentin Miller Responds To “Drake’s Ghostwriter” Allegations

blame it on Shake July 24, 2015
quentin-miller

The summer heat is definitely messing with people’s emotions. Between Action Bronson/Ghostface, Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj (smh), Chris Brown being “held hostage” in the Philippines, and N.O.R.E. dissing someone something serious, “beef” has been at the forefront all week – with Drake/Meek Mill leading the charge. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, a complete recap of the situation can be found here. Basically, Meek felt some type of way on Wednesday evening and decided to set his sights on Drake – claiming the Toronto rapper doesn’t write his own raps. He even went as far as naming names, pointing to Atlanta artist Quentin Miller as Drizzy’s alleged ghostwriter.

Last night, Funk Flex took it a step further on Hot97 and pulled a bitch move felt the need to play a reference track QM had seemingly laced for “10 Bands” – a track off Drake’s IYRTITL. As a radio DJ, Flex should be aware that reference tracks are an integral part of the behind-the-scenes. Dr. Dre has plenty of demos floating around the internet, Frank Ocean and Jeremih references have surfaced before, hell… we even heard Kendrick Lamar’s reference for Kanye’s “All Day” (which everyone mis-labelled as a remix). Since the creation of 2DBZ in 2007 (and years prior, during my days at HipHopDX), I’ve come across hundreds of demos and leaks. The only difference, the inner-circle who would circulate those tracks would keep them out of the public’s eye. But, it’s 2015, and the thirst is real. Now, we’ve got people who come across things like this and their first instinct is to upload it online. (Do it for the clicks!)

Anyways, personal rant aside, we’ve yet to hear anything from Drake himself. Sure, a screenshot of a DM on Instagram is floating around, but let’s be real… if Drizzy was on trial here, that piece of “evidence” would be laughed at and disregarded within the first thirty seconds. Anyone with Photoshop (or even MS PAINT) could cook up a “screenshot” and share it online. But I digress.

Fast forward to today (Friday, July 24), and the third party in this whole mess finally breaks his silence. Taking to his Tumblr, Quentin Miller (who is part of the duo WDNG Chsrs we’ve been posting for a little while now) speaks on the situation, recounting his experience with Drake’s latest album, and denying any claims that he’s written for the Toronto Raptor’s global ambassador.

Winter 2014… I was just another guy working a job he hated with a passion for music. And somehow found myself on the phone with One of my idols.. I told him I worked in a bakery and his exact words were “Fuck that, you’re destined for greatness.” Hearing that from someone that I’ve been studying since 2009, bar for bar… There’s no way to describe that.. Most of the project was done before I came in the picture.. I remember him playing it for me for the first time thinking “Why am I here?” like.. what does he need me for?? The answer is.. Nothing… I watched this man piece together words in front of me. I watched him write/replace bars 2- 3 at a time on 6pm in NY.. I witnessed him light up, go in and freestyle Madonna. I took notes from the best in the game… I remember him showing me the thank you notes in NY before the album dropped.. Showing me the QM, telling me they put me on the credits (Ghostwriter???). He attached my name to something that touched the world.. When nobody would pay attention, Drake saw something in me and reached out… Of all people… Drizzy.. Two artists in exact opposite spaces in their career.. We came together and made something special.. I am not and never will be a “ghostwriter” for Drake.. I’m proud to say that we’ve collaborated .. but I could never take credit for anything other than the few songs we worked on together.

Thats all I have to say on it.. back to this 1317 shit…

Now, can we move on and, you know, actually focus on MUSIC again? Twitter beef that will be squashed within a week (or sooner) needs to go, man. Could you imagine Biggie and Pac involved in a back-and-forth over social media? That’s right, you can’t.

*throws on “The Bitch In Yoo” and reminisces on better times.