On His Relationship With Drake

Chase N. Cashe. “I was on Myspace and found Drake’s page and heard ‘City Is Mine.’ I thought it was so dope because he was somebody my age whose rap was ill. Then I heard ‘Do What You Do’ and some other songs. I hit him up because I actually did a chopped and screwed version of two of the songs which I sent to him. He was like, ‘Man this is dope. Let’s just build.’

“But we never really got to build like that because he was still doing his Degrassi thing and that was slowly coming to an end and he wasn’t really running around the states like that yet. That’s when he decided he really wanted to pursue being an artist. He was in Atlanta working with Don Cannon. Don Cannon happened to be a good friend of mine. When me and Hit first moved to Atlanta, Don Cannon took us in.

“So Cannon brought Drake to the studio to meet me and I met him. And this nigga was so shy and quiet. I was just like, ‘Yo, my nigga, you’re the s***.’ Drake was looking at me because me and Hit-Boy were working with everybody at the time. We were really popping in the A and Polow was the hottest nigga at the moment.

I sent Rob Walker some songs and he was like, ‘Yo he is dope as f***. I’m gonna play them for Pharrell.’ Played them for P and P didn’t want to f*** with it. He was like, ‘Well, we got Chester French and Teyana right now. We’re kinda busy, but I’m f***ing with it.’- Chase N. Cashe

“I was telling Drake, ‘Whatever you need man, I got you. If you need beats for anything, it’s nothing. I got you.’ And we’ve been talking ever since. He went from a stranger to becoming my brother because I never met a person who never took what I was saying and doubted it. Everything that I told son, he listened to it.

“I knew Drake could be something. A lot of times with a singing artist, their records are coming from someone else writing and producing them. But this kid was on his own. This was before 40 was around all the time. It was just him and he was out here moving by himself.

“He was throwing himself out in the world and he was getting criticized like crazy and he never let that s*** f*** him up. He had people calling him a wannabe Kanye and I was like, ‘Yo, this nigga is the next Fresh Prince.’

“There was one point where he had been offered a deal from Lenny S. I knew Rob Walker so well since he was mentoring me. I told Rob Walker, ‘Yo, I got this kid Drake. You need to check him out.’ I sent him some songs and he was like, ‘Yo he is dope as f***. I’m gonna play them for Pharrell.’ Played them for P and P didn’t want to f*** with it. He was like, ‘Well, we got Chester French and Teyana right now. We’re kinda busy, but I’m f***ing with it.’

“So I was telling Drake, ‘You really need to just be your own man. You got Boi-1da and 40 now.’ The next thing I know Boi-1da and 40 start getting better and s*** just started happening. This was around Comeback Season and that’s when I knew it he was gonna be big.

“So Drake came to L.A. and I took him to Interscope. I walked this guy Drake in and he’s wearing all Prada black premium. No one is noticing this but me, and they’re trying to tell me he’s not a star. He’s dressed head to toe like a f***ing star!

Drake gave the Surf Club his first shoutout. It was on the ‘A Milli Freestyle’ when he said, ‘Please comprehend, I’m the Surf Club general.’ We were gonna try to work something out, but I kept telling him like, ‘You are your own man. As much as I f*** with you, I feel like you’re a special person and that you should really start your own thing.’ - Chase N. Cashe

“I walk him in and they listened to the music and the first thing they do is like, ‘I think we want to get you to write on some s***.’ They look at me like, ‘Chase, get him some beats and he could write on them.’ I’m like, ‘Huh? This nigga’s the s***. I’m gonna give him some beats like he’s an artist. He’s not a writer.’ So they didn’t want to f*** with him and Interscope passed.

“After that Drake gave the Surf Club his first shoutout. It was on the ‘A Milli Freestyle’ when he said, ‘Please comprehend, I’m the Surf Club general.’ We were gonna try to work something out, but I kept telling him like, ‘You are your own man. As much as I f*** with you, I feel like you’re a special person and that you should really start your own thing.’

“I used to always tell him, ‘You’re the next Hov. I don’t care what anybody says.’ I always felt that way because when I first met him he was very observant, quiet as f***, and well-spoken. He is the most business savvy person I’ve met in years. I feel like that came from his acting skills. He knows how to play off people. I realized that he wasn’t corny like everyone was talking about. He could actually make people laugh.

“And I started seeing b****es turn over. B****es used to be like, ‘He is not cute.’ We would be in the A and these b****es would meet this nigga and they would be in a trance because he’s so f***ing well-spoken and he words everything so perfectly that b****es were out of their mind. Once I started seeing that s*** I knew he knew how to work everything. He never let the Kanye comparisons f*** with him. He never let that s*** keep him from singing.

The Surf Club Shoutout On “9 AM In Dallas”

Chase N. Cashe. “It started off with me going to Record Plant just to stop by. Boi-1da was in the studio and he was playing beats for Stat Quo. I always f*** with people who are my real homeys, so I always walk in the room and talk s*** like, ‘Nigga what you got? Play me something.’ Drake had told me a few days prior that he was trying to wrap the album up.

“He had the ‘You Know, You Know’ joint and I was pressing him to put that s*** on the album. But some s*** happened where they couldn’t find the files and it was only the two track.

"So I was in the studio feeling the vibe from ‘You Know, You Know’ and was like you need something touching, something where you’re just venting and letting it all out. Something that’s touching, but acoustic because a lot of his s*** was so moody and synthetic. ‘Fear’ was the only thing that I’d ever heard that was ‘in your face.’

“Stat Quo asked Boi-1da to play some beats and he played that ‘9 AM In Dallas’ beat. I didn’t say nothing, I just let it play. Stat Quo left the room and I was like, ‘I need that beat for Drake. He’s at Nightbird Studios right now. I’m about to go over to the studio. E-mail that s***. I’m about to go over here and tell him to ask you for this beat.’

He shouted me out and they thought I did the beat. I had to run around for the longest telling everybody that I didn’t do the beat. To me that just signifies how I get down with people. I just want to see my people win. - Chase N. Cashe

“I left Record Plant and went over to Nightbird studios and got up with Drake. I walked in and was like, ‘Yo man, 1da got this beat that you need to rap on right now.’ 1da sent it, played it, and as soon as the pianos dropped and the base dropped, I just seen Drake’s face scrunch and he just stopped the beat and was like, ‘Yo, good look nigga.’ And, the next thing I know, I just ended up hearing it.

“When it dropped that morning motherfuckers just start hitting me like, ‘Man, you didn’t hear Drake shout you out?’ I was just like, ‘Nah, where did he shout me out at?’ And Drake was like, ‘Chase N. Cashe, that’s my brother from the Surf Club.’ He shouted me out and they thought I did the beat. I had to run around for the longest telling everybody that I didn’t do the beat. To me that just signifies how I get down with people. I just want to see my people win.

“I used to be around Boi-1da and he would be like, ‘I’m trying to get my s*** cracking.’ I would be like, ‘I feel you man, but the guy you’re working with is the guy that’s gonna be cracking for the next ten years. F*** everybody and all the guys you wanna work with now. We all wanna work with Eminem, but this is something y’all really built from scratch from Canada. Y’all can literally be a legacy out of this s*** and be big in your hometown. ’

“I just always wanted them to have a better perspective especially because they came up differently. That’s one thing about Drake I always try to tell people, they haven’t heard the music that we came up on.

Not too long ago Drake asked me for some albums to listen to. I told him to listen to Outkast’s Aquemini which he had never heard before. But to really sit there and digest Erykah Badu’s Baduizm and Outkast’s Aquemini and Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and all that s*** because these guys are from Canada, they weren’t raised up on that s***. - Chase N. Cashe

“Not too long ago Drake asked me for some albums to listen to. I told him to listen to Outkast’s Aquemini which he had never heard before. But to really sit there and digest Erykah Badu’s Baduizm and Outkast’s Aquemini and Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and all that s*** because these guys are from Canada, they weren’t raised up on that s***.

“So he hears this s*** and he listens to it like a kid like, ‘Oh, this s*** is real! Is this what y’all was on?’ I got Lil Wayne songs that I played before and he’s like, ‘Damn when this came out?’ I’m like, “Man, this was the squad when I was in middle school.’ He’s never heard this s*** and this is a person that has bangers. You would’ve thought he knew Wayne’s whole catalog, but he didn’t and he’s learning everyday.

“Him being from Canada and coming over here, they really had to get Americanized. They didn’t know about no strip club lifestyle in Atlanta. They didn’t know about sipping no lean and smoking no Kush the way we really cherish that s*** out here. I mean, they got free health care! That’s some real s***. They’re just different.

“Even in how they talk and when I first got around him it took me a while to figure what we could converse about. Like, these guys are Canadian! They’re literally talking about Poitín a highly alcoholic Irish liquor and other Canadian s***. I’m New Orleans, L.A. hood. I’m thinking about f***ing b****es and they’re probably thinking about something completely different like, ‘What’s your mom doing?’ They just weren’t Americanized.”

complex.com/music/2011/07/who-is-the-surf-club/11

Love stories like this man.

He a real nigga no doubt. 🤧

das me brudda from da surf club

Wow, Chase is a very solid dude. He seen the vision for Drake and believed him when very few did. What he told Drake all came to pass. major props to him for pushing Drake towards the direction of building his own thing. thats love man

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