Exactly.

Best way would be to start of by saying you’re telling him things he should hear because you care for him as a friend

I’m not as lucky as you in the sense that my friends don’t really care or talk about music when we’re out, they know I produce and say it’s good and that’s pretty much it. One time though a friend told me I’m usually making the same kind of beats and I should try to be more versatile, and it did strike me at first obviously but tbh I knew she was right. I wasn’t even happy back then making those beats, I was just aiming for bottom level placements. But her telling me really made it click, I had to hear it.

Its not gonna be an easy convo by any means but he’ll likely appreciate you speaking up. This will maybe open the doors to a point where you can give him advice and help him better his craft without the fear of confrontation. You gotta ask him if he had the chance to show Hov a record, would be truly be confident? Honesty is important in the music studio, it would hurt him much more if he found out he sucked by someone he looks up too. You could bring more positivity to the conversation by maybe telling him he should try to pursue production/engineering.

its ur fault for not giving him constructive criticism and just letting him remain stagnant

You still sharing that spotify link? I'm curious af now.

Can you pass this my way too (Spotify)?

Send me dat s*** im so curious lmao
Edit: spotify pls

Partially, but there are certain people that are just not cut out for it & won't really improve significantly no matter how much you try to help them. Not saying his homie is one of those people but there are people like that

@op link me his s***

Spotify