Mustard has addressed the notion that he was further taunting Drake when filming the video for Kendrick Lamar‘s video for diss song “Not Like Us”.
The producer was pictured during the video shoot wearing a Toronto Blue Jays cap, Drizzy’s hometown baseball team, leading to speculation that it was a subtle jab at the 6 God.
During an interview with Big Boy, however, Mustard clarified: “I wasn’t trolling. I really wasn’t trolling. I bought a lot of hats that I like. I bought an STL hat, an Angels hat, a Braves hat. I put Faith of a Mustard Seed [the title of his new album] on all of them.
“I sweated out two of my hats at Pop Out [Kendrick Lamar’s Inglewood concert] and that was the last hat that I had with Faith of a Mustard Seed on it. It just happened to be a Toronto Blue Jays hat.”
The multi-platinum hitmaker also explained that the cap was a nod to Baldwin Village, the notorious South Los Angeles neighborhood known as “the Jungles” where he grew up.
“I grew up in the Jungles, we all wear that hat,” he said. “I mean, I wear the NY hat — that’s Nip’s hat, the neighborhoods. Our hats mean a lot of different things so I never thought that much into it like, ‘Oh, I’m tryna troll y’all.’”
“If I was on that, then I woulda probably wacked the Blue Jay off and put an X between it,” he joked. “I wasn’t on that, though.”
Mustard previously revealed that he did not know his beat was going to be used for “Not Like Us,” which hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
“I made that beat on my manager’s birthday [April 6],” he told XXL. “I sent [Kendrick] maybe three [beats] that day. He just hearted it. I didn’t hear it ’til [the song] came out.”
The 10 Summers boss also spoke about where he was when he heard the song for the first time, and how surprised he was to connect the dots.
“When I heard it, I was on the freeway, and I just, like, my manager hit me, like, ‘Mustard on the Beat,’” he recalled. “Like, ‘Text me now.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I got another couple texts and people like, ‘Mustard on the Beat, Mustard on the Beat.’
“These are people I be with all the time, so I’m like, ‘What the fuck is everybody…’ and then I call my manager. I’m like, ‘What did I miss? What’s going on?’ And he’s like, ‘Man, go to YouTube right now. It’s out.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ He’s like, ‘Dot just dropped a song. It’s your beat.’
“I’m like, ‘For real?’ I go, I listen, I’m like, ‘Whoa!’ I started going crazy. I had a fuckin’ Vegas show that night, so I played that shit all the way to the fuckin’ plane, got to Vegas, played it that night. It was fuckin’ crazy, man. That’s some crazy shit.”