Drake confirms Jay-Z collaboration

During his time working on The Blueprint 3, Jay-Z was not dominating radio the way that he is known to usually do. Lil Wayne had his eyes set on replacing Jay-Z in the game for years. On their 2008 collaboration, “Mr. Carter,” Jay seemingly passed the torch to Wayne. Aside from trying to become the top rapper in the game, Lil Wayne is also trying to become one of the top executives in hip hop.

Before the release of Tha Carter II, Lil Wayne founded Young Money Entertainment. For years, the only notable artist on the label was Lil Wayne. The first artist signed to the label was Curren$y, but he never built up a significant buzz. His debut album was supposed to be released late in 2006, but it was pushed back. Early in 2007, he left the label. While working on his sixth album, Lil Wayne began signing several artists to the label.

Late in 2008, he began working with Canadian rapper, Drake. At the time, he was releasing several mixtapes. Initially, he was not taken seriously as he attempted to become a rapper. He was still best-known as the star on the teenage soap opera, “Degrassi.” However, in 2009, he released the mixtape, So Far Gone, that many say was better than most of the studio albums released in 2009.

Realizing the rising popularity behind Drake and his need to build some buzz, Jay-Z reached out to Drake to record with him for The Blueprint 3. The final result of their collaboration was the song, “Off That.” It has yet to be released as an official single off of the album, but it has received a relative amount of radio play.

Now that he has built a name for himself, Drake is working on his debut album, Thank Me Later. Among the collaborations that he has planned for the album, he said that he wanted to work with Jay-Z again. Before they worked together on “Off That,” Drake said that he was not a huge fan of Jay’s, but he is now. Drake mentioned a song that he called “Light It Up” that he wanted to feature Jay-Z on.

The first time that this song was mentioned was in November. At that time, he was waiting on Jay-Z to get back with him. It has been two months since Drake mentioned the song. Recently, he discussed his collaboration with Jay and he said that it was completed and ready to be released, along with the album. While this song will not be the first offering from the album, he does hope that it will go on to become one of the singles off of this album.

Drake hopes to release Thank Me Later in June 2010 on Young Money Entertainment and Cash Money Records.