A track featuring Joey Badass and T-Pain surfaced on the Internet earlier this week, and it was presumed to be a remix to Post Malone’s “Rockstar” featuring 21 Savage. However, Teddy put us on that it was actually the original record.
That’s the original. They took me off. And put 21 on. Me and Joey had it first
— T-Pain (@TPAIN) December 28, 2017
He didn’t explain why the features were swapped out, but his label mate confirmed his statement.
This is facts… I actually co-wrote the song w post 🙂 quietly got my first #1 off that ??? more ghostwriting in 2018 https://t.co/7AEApxT6IJ
— BADMON (@joeyBADASS) December 29, 2017
Interestingly, White Iverson never mentioned this detail in his interview with Billboard in September. He said Joey was in the studio during the record of the song, but he didn’t mention the extent of his contributions to his hit.
I was in New York, and we were at Quad Studios. Some kid came in, and I guess he was in the session next door and he was like, ‘Hey? Can I play you some beats?’ I’m like, ‘I guess so.’ You know, I’m a nice guy, I like music. I’ll listen to your beats. He played the beat and it was incredible. His name is Tank. He’s a really young guy, and a really talented producer. So we did that, and Joey Badass was in there. We were just vibing on it and the melody was sick. We just cut like a little scratch vocal and we took it back to LA. I finished my part and sent it off to [21] Savage—and there it is.
In this interview, Malone made it seem like the “Devastated” rapper was just present in the studio, but at least he still got paid (Kanye shrugs). He’s also credited on the song’s Wikipedia page.
Listen to the alleged original version of “Rockstar” featuring Joey Badass and T-Pain above.
