Earlier today, I managed to catch up with Dash of Infared Music Group and producer Dion Primo who both served as A&R’s for L.E.P.’s forthcoming Now Or Neva. Of course, I had to ask about The Bogus Boys’ newly recorded collaboration with fellow Chi native Lupe Fiasco and they both let me in on how the track came about.
Dion: “Zombieland” is fuckin’ crazy. I’ma tell you, “Zombieland” is crazy from both angles. Before Lupe, there’s a producer named J-Kits. He does a lot of work with Trey Songz. He hit me up like, “Yo, I wanna work and do some shit with L.E.P.”. I’m like, “L.E.P.? That’s some hard rap shit”. I said cool and he sent some beats. He sent four of the craziest fuckin’ beats we had heard that whole weekend.
Dash: “Zombieland” was a verse that he [Count] had already. We were late for a studio session and I was in the car barking about being late. I looked to the side and there’s Lupe. Moonie hopped out like, “What’s up? Let’s do something. We’re working on our mixtape. We want you to listen to it.”. Moonie asked Lu if he was in the studio and Lu replied “Nah. I’m actually going to get some sushi next door.” We didn’t want a song from Lupe or nothing. We just wanted a drop from him and he was cool with it. We’re in the studio and a hour passes. I didn’t think he was coming. I go outside and Lupe’s trying to get buzzed in. He came in and wanted us to play the tape. We played “Zombieland” and he started jumping around the studio. He took his glasses off and said “Oh, shit. Bring that back!”. I told him that we needed to make something happen and he cut me off – “Don’t worry about it. That Zombieland record. Let’s do it.”. I didn’t even have the sessions or nothing. I called Primo and he came through with the session. Lu didn’t use a pen, paper or nothing. He just went in and layed his verse.
I had the pleasure of hearing “Zombieland” before Lu jumped on it and it was a pretty tough track then, so I can only imagine how crazy it is now. Stay tuned for a full piece detailing the making of L.E.P.’s latest offering dropping here later on this week. Now Or Neva drops tomorrow people.