Canadian songwriter and producer Noah “40” Shebib has downplayed The Weeknd’s contributions to Drake’s 2011 album Take Care.
“There’s, like, 22 songs on Take Care. He contributed on four of them,” Shebib told Rolling Stone. “There are 18 other songs on there where that guy was nowhere to be found, right?”
Of the 18 songs on the original version of the album, The Weeknd has writing credits on five, co-producer credits on two, and he is featured on one. Shebib, who is a co-executive producer of the album, has writing credits on 16 tracks and production credits on 14.
“So it’s like, ‘Yeah, cool and you contribute to a few records on Take Care. Significant records, sure, but it was a few. It wasn’t a lot.’ It’s a common misconception,” Shebib said. “I made that whole album. I saw Abel maybe two days. I was in there for like a year.”
Elsewhere in the Rolling Stone interview, Shebib defended Drake against claims that he releases as many songs as possible to rack up streaming figures.
“It’s so offensive,” he said. “Absolutely not. No one gives a s**t about streaming numbers.”
Shebib, who has Multiple Sclerosis, admitted Pusha T crossed the line on his 2018 track “The Story of Adidon.” Pusha T rapped: “OVO 40, hunched over like he 80 / tick, tick, tick / How much time he got? / That man is sick, sick, sick.”
“I guess all I’ll say is that was just a different thing for me,” said Shebib. Asked how it made him feel, he replied: “Like s**t, for sure. Like s**t.”
Shebib also ranked Drake's albums: So Far Gone, Take Care, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, Scorpion, Nothing Was The Same, Views and Thank Me Later.