(AllHipHop News) Rich The Kid earned a double-platinum plaque for the 2017 single “New Freezer” off his debut album The World Is Yours. The song’s success was due in part to the viral #NewFreezerChallenge as well as a standout feature from Kendrick Lamar.
Apparently, Lamar was not the only rapper to rhyme over the Ben Jayne-produced beat. A$AP Ferg told a story on DJ Whoo Kid’s show about how Rich allegedly removed him and other artists from the song before Kendrick agreed to appear on the final version.
“I did ‘New Freezer.’ That was my song. Ben came through and we did that song together. It was me, Rich The Kid, and a few other n*ggas… MadeinTYO,” said Ferg. “This n*gga ended up playing it for f*cking, I think, Jaden Smith, Kendrick Lamar, all these other n*ggas. Kendrick was like, ‘I’ll get on it as long as everybody else comes off of it.'”
Even though he was left off the track, the Harlemite was happy fellow NYC-born rapper, Rich The Kid, rose in the industry as a result of his first Billboard Hot 100 hit. Ferg added, “To see what ‘New Freezer’ did and it took him to a whole other level. He got a [publishing] deal, got an artist deal, a label deal, living in an L.A. house, everything, off a song and being around.”
In a February 2019 interview with AllHipHop, Jean Nelson of The Blueprint Music Group management company spoke about how his client Rich The Kid and Top Dawg Entertainment emcee Kendrick Lamar connected for “New Freezer.” His version of the tune’s creation centered around RTK requesting K. Dot for the collaboration.
“[Rich] came in with that song, sat with us, and just played us the record ‘New Freezer.’ We were like, ‘This is incredible.’ He was like, ‘I need Kendrick on this,’” recalled Nelson. “With our relationship with TDE, who are great allies and friends of ours, the calls were made and we got it done. Kendrick told him he would do it, and he was a man of his word. We did the record and the video. It was heaven after that.”