Welcome to the Deep Dive. Have you ever wondered
how a song goes from like a simple audio file
to an absolute hostile takeover of the entire
music industry? I mean, it is a fascinating process
to watch unfold. Right. Today, we're looking
at a literal masterclass in musical mutation.
We are unpacking a 2013 single by American hip
hop artist Future. The track titled Shit. Yeah,
stylized with a dollar sign and an exclamation
point or, you know, edited for radio as Shh.
Naturally. And the mission here for you listening
is to explore exactly how the standard four minute
and 52 second drop just warped into a massive
multi -tiered collaborative event. A total cultural
moment. Exactly. Okay, let's unpack this because
before we get to the absolute madness of the
remiss culture that took over the calendar later
that year. Madness. Oh, complete frenzy. But
we need to establish the baseline first. We have
to look to the original blueprint of this trap
anthem. Right, because the architecture that
gets built on top of this track later on is just
sprawling. So understanding the foundation is
critical here. We are starting in the fall of
2013, September 24th, to be precise. That's when
the song officially drops as a digital download.
Through a whole combination of labels, right?
Exactly. It's a hybrid release structure. It
comes out via A1, free bands, and Epic Records.
OK, so major backing. Major backing. Yeah. And
it's positioned as the third single from Future's
second studio album, Honest. Which didn't even
hit the market until 2014. Right. This is following
up another 2013 single he had called Ready. But
there's a crucial strategic move here regarding
the rollout itself. The official music video
actually dropped on September 23rd. Oh wait,
a full 24 hours before the digital audio release.
Precisely. That is highly calculated. You're
weaponizing the visual impact to... drive the
commercial demand. Yeah, build the anticipation.
Right, you put the imagery out into the culture,
let it circulate, let the hype build, and then
the very next day, you open the register and
say, here's the digital download. It works perfectly.
And looking at the core personnel for this initial
track, it's pretty monumental. Yeah, the writing
credits list, Nevadius Cash, which is Future's
real name, alongside Michael Williams, universally
known as Mike Will Made It, and Justin Garner.
And then the production is handled by Mike Will
Made It alongside Jaybo. Yes. I instantly think
of this setup like a tech startup, releasing
their minimum viable product, their MVP. That's
a great way to put it. It has a clear structure,
major backing from epic records. But the true
innovation happens when outside developers get
their hands on the open source code. Exactly.
And what's fascinating here is the collaborative
nature of those writing and production credits.
Yeah. The synergy between Future and Mike Will
made it. It isn't just a simple transaction where
a vocalist leases a beat from a producer. Right.
They share the core writing credits. They do.
They built this architecture together from the
ground up. They intertwine the vocal cadence
with that real heavy sparse trap production establishing
that definitive 2013 sound exactly they established
a foundation strong enough to support the massive
architecture of what happens next because if
the original code wasn't structurally perfect
nobody else would want to touch it exactly but
because it was flawless it practically begged
for outside developers to come in and build on
top of it and man they absolutely did Which brings
us out of that September major label release
window and into the wild rapid fire sequence
of events that took place just three months later.
December of 2013. Right. Moving away from a standard
album rollout and into a literal master class
on how a song's life cycle can be artificially
extended. Oh, artificially and brilliantly extended.
Yeah. Here's where it gets really interesting,
because the timeline turns into a complete frenzy.
The pacing in December is just relentless. It
is. So on December 14th, an announcement hits
the culture that Canadian rapper Drake will appear
on a remix of the track. Which is massive news
on its own, a huge crossover event. Right, but
before the audience can even process that collaboration,
the very next day, December 15th, the reveal
expands. The roster just completely explodes.
Yeah, it's not just Drake. Suddenly we find out
that Schoolboy Q, Jeezy, Pastor Troy, TI, and
Juicy J are all jumping on this beat. They announced
this entire heavyweight lineup in a 48 -hour
span. It's like a modern blockbuster movie trailer
campaign. Oh, totally. You know, where a studio
does those staggered character reveals on social
media, dropping one poster a day to ensure they
just dominate the trending topics for a week
straight. That's exactly the playbook. They didn't
just dump all the music on the internet at once.
Right. So two days after that massive roster
announcement, on December 17th, the first actual
remix drops. And this one features Drake and
Juicy J. Okay. Then, two days after that, on
December 19th, a completely different version
drops. This is dubbed the ATL Remix. Featuring
Pastor Troy, GZ, and TI. Right. And then, the
very next day, December 20th, another new remix
drops featuring West Coast rapper, schoolboy
Q, and hip -hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs. It is
a staggering amount of material in such a short
window. It is. But I have to ask, and I'm genuinely
pushing back on this strategy a bit. Okay, go
for it. Doesn't releasing three completely different
versions of the exact same song featuring different
artists all within a four -day window Doesn't
that risk exhausting the listener you think so
yeah, I mean by the time we hit December 20th
Aren't people fatigued? Doesn't this massively
dilute the impact of that carefully crafted original
track from September? I see why you'd say that.
It seems like a recipe for oversaturation. But
the brilliance of this specific rollout is that
they aren't diluting the market. They are micro
-targeting it. Look at the psychology behind
these specific curated drops. What do you mean?
Well, on December 17th, they pair Drake with
Juicy J. Drake brings this unprecedented global
pop crossover appeal, right? Right. While Juicy
J anchors the track in deep foundational southern
rap lore, that targets a very specific listener
demographic. OK, thanks. But then on the 19th,
the pivot is geographic. They create a dedicated
Atlanta version. The ATL remix. Right. By putting
Pastor Troy, Jeezy, and TI on the same track,
they are assembling the absolute architects of
the Atlanta trap sound. Oh, wow. So that version
speaks directly to the hometown purists. Exactly.
The core regional fan base that birth the entire
movement. So it's a localized flex. Yeah. You're
acknowledging the roots before you, you know,
take it global. Precisely. And then on a 20th
they pivot yet again. They bring in schoolboy
Q to represent the West Coast aesthetic. Right.
And they pair him with Diddy, who is like the
ultimate symbol of East Coast hip hop opulence.
That is wild. They essentially sliced the global
hip hop demographic into distinct geographical
and stylistic quadrants. Yes. If they had simply
forced all seven of these vastly different artists
onto a single bloated 20 minute track on day
one. would have caused immediate listener fatigue.
Exactly. But by grouping artists by geography
and vibe, they ensure that every faction of the
audience got a bespoke version of the song. It
doesn't dilute the original. It creates entirely
new entry points. Yes, exactly. OK. But so they've
recorded these three massive hyper -targeted
remixes. They've got the South, the East Coast,
the West Coast, the global pop market. But having
broken down the timeline and the heavyweights
involved, we really have to shift to where these
tracks actually live. Yes, the delivery ecosystem.
Because if Epic Records tries to push three different
versions of the same single to iTunes in four
days, they're going to cannibalize their own
sales data. Oh, they would confuse the market
entirely. So how do they distribute this mountain
of audio? Why pivot away from iTunes and official
label channels where the original September 24th
single was sold? This raises an important question
about how the music ecosystem actually operates,
especially back in 2013. Right, because the sources
show that the Drake and Juicy J remix from December
17th didn't come out through Epic Records. It
was released on DJ Esco's mixtape. His No Sleep
mixtape. Yeah. And then on December 23rd, Mike
Will made In Hair. It releases his own mixtape,
hashtag MikeWillBintroll, which is hosted by
Future. Yes. And this mixtape contained the ultimate
culmination of all of this. The mega mix. A grand
finale. Right. Featuring verses from all the
guest stars. Yeah. Drake, Jeezy, T .I., Juicy
J, Schoolboy Q, Diddy, and Pastor Troy all on
one track. But why put these massive A -list
collaborations on DJ Esco and Mike Wilmaid? It's
mixtapes. Because while the original digital
single serves the commercial album, Honest, feeding
the mixtape circuit does something else entirely.
What does it do? It empowers the producers and
the DJs. You have to remember, the commercial
spaces, like the official label channels in iTunes,
they are rigid. Very corporate. Right. The original
drop was inventory meant to prime the pump for
the album. But the mixtape circuit, it operates
on a different set of rules. It's a parallel
distribution economy. Exactly. Feeding the mixtape
circuit keeps the artist's street credibility
high while building hype outside the rigid confines
of traditional retail. Oh, that makes sense because
Clearing the paperwork, the legalities for seven
of the biggest artists in the world to appear
on an official retail single. That would take
months. Right. It would completely kill the spontaneous
momentum of that December advent calendar rollout.
Exactly. By moving the remixes to the digital
mixtape circuit. They bypass the bureaucracy.
They move at the speed of the internet. And by
placing these massive cultural moments on DJ
Esco and Mike Wohl's mixtapes, Future is actively
elevating his immediate circle. Ah, sharing the
wealth. Right. Esco and Mike will gain immense
cultural capital by being the exclusive distributors
of these tracks. It's an end run around the corporate
structure. Yes. OK, so that brings us to the
metrics. We've established the monumental lineup
of talent and this really innovative distribution.
Right. How did the traditional metrics measure
this cultural event? Well, the traditional metrics
are actually quite fascinating when you compare
them to the sheer cultural noise. Right, because
according to Billboard, the US bubbling under
Hot 100 peak was 17. Yeah. And its peak on the
US Hot R &B slash hip hop songs chart was 34.
Exactly. So what does this all mean? Because
to a casual observer, you know, a song with Drake,
Diddy, T .I., and Jeezy, it didn't even crack
the main Billboard Hot 100. It was just bubbling
under. I equate this to a critically acclaimed
indie film. Oh, how so? Like, it may not have
had the highest box office gross of the year,
but every single A -list actor wanted to be in
it. Oh, that is a fantastic analogy. Yeah. Because
if we connect this to the bigger picture, it
becomes clear that chart placement is only one
metric of success. It's just tracking retail
sales. Right. The sheer volume of hip hop royalty,
eager to jump on a Mike Will made it beat for
a Future track, that proves the song's immense
industry respect. Yeah, it's cultural gravity.
Exactly. If you look at Future's vast discography
in the source material, it's massive. Oh, yeah.
dozens of singles across multiple albums. Right.
From Pluto all the way to mixtape Pluto. And
this track sits in a specific collaborative era
in 2013 alongside songs like Ready and Real and
True. Right. It serves as a pivotal ankle point.
It proved future possessed the leverage necessary
to command the attention of the entire industry.
The Billboard charts are essentially tracking
how many tickets were sold to the general public,
which wasn't a record breaking amount. But the
guest list for the remix. That proves this was
the most important party of the year for industry
insiders. Everyone wanted to be in the room.
Right. So to summarize all this for you listening,
we've seen how an initial September release became
a literal December mixtape phenomenon. Through
staggered localized remixes. Right. And strategic
collaborations. I highly structured major label
single, basically mutated into a month long event.
It's incredible. And before we wrap up, I want
to leave you, the listener, with the final concept
to really mull over. OK, let's hear it. Looking
at the absolute mountain of future songs, albums
and features spanning from 2011 to 2025 in the
source material. You have to ask yourself, if
a single song can spawn its own cinematic universe
of regional remixes ending in a massive megamix,
At what point does a track stop being a single
piece of music and start becoming a platform?
Oh, wow. So it ceases to be just audio and becomes
an environment. Exactly. Where exactly is the
line between the original art and the remix?
When does the original song become the operating
system and the guest artists are simply the applications
running on it? That is exactly the kind of conceptual
shift that makes these deep dives so rewarding.
It really changes how you look at a release.
Absolutely. Thank you for joining this deep dive.
If there's one thing you take away from this,
remember that true understanding comes not just
from looking at the charts, but by looking at
who shows up to the party. Catch you next time.