DJ Khaled has a dream collaboration in mind – though he’s already made his dream come true in the past.
Talking to Billboard about his new campaign with DJEEP lighters in a conversation published on Monday (March 26), Khaled revealed he hopes to collab with Rihanna one more time.
“I want to work again with Rihanna,” he says. “I’ve worked with her and we made a big hit record called ‘Wild Thoughts.’ I want to make another record with her. That’s my wishlist.”
Released in 2017, “Wild Thoughts” also featured Bryson Tiller and served as the third single from Khaled’s tenth studio album, Grateful. The track debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 89,000 digital copies sold and 36.3 million streams, marking Rihanna’s 31st top ten, Khaled’s third, and Tiller’s first.
During his 2022 appearance on Drink Champs, Khaled told N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN about the time he was willing to go to extreme lengths to finish “Wild Thoughts” as the deadline for Grateful was nearing at the time.
Khaled and Tiller originally did the song together, but when Rihanna jumped on it and changed the key of the record, Tiller needed to redo his vocals.
“So I called Bryson Tiller like, ‘Yo, good news. The RiRi vocals are in. Great news,’” he explained. “I go to Bryson Tiller’s house in L.A., I play him the record, we all excited, ‘I need you to cut your vocals up because now the music’s pitched up, so you gotta cut your vocals up.’ Even me, I had to change my shit. He said, ‘No problem.’ I leave.
“I’m calling Bryson Tiller, my album’s coming out in like two weeks, ‘Yo bro, I need you to cut the vocals over, you know Rihanna’s vocals are in? You hear that right?’ Everybody’s excited.”
But with the clock ticking on Grateful, Bryson Tiller stopped responding to DJ Khaled, so Khaled took things into his own hands and showed up at Tiller’s house.
“He’s not picking up his phone,” Khaled said. “You know, Bryson’s my brother. He had a surprise album coming out at the same time so he’s not picking up my phone. I need this done.
“I got fucking Rihanna vocals, one of the biggest records of my career. He’s not picking up the phone. I jump in my car, I drive to his house. He has a gate. I’m flashing my lights, honking my horn, sending texts, nobody’s replying.
“You think I’m playing with this shit? One thing about me, anybody know me, I don’t play no games. Eventually, shout out to Rich the Barber, he comes outside, Bryson comes out, they open the gate. I was already climbing the gate. You think I’m playing? Ask them, call them. Call them, get their version. It might be more intense.”
He continued: “They come outside, I say, ‘Yo bro, I need the record, I need you to cut your vocals. I gotta drop this record next week.’ He did it, he was excited to do it. I was just confused, meaning as in, can you pick up your phone?”
