Dave East has revealed he recorded a large portion of his new album Fortune Favors the Bold at one of Pablo Escobar’s Colombian stash houses.
The Harlem native sat down with Ebro Darden for Apple Music’s Rap Life on Tuesday (July 25) and opened up about his Medellín retreat where he recorded about “12 or 13” records for his LP.
“I’ve always been a fan of Pablo Escobar, and I mean, not the destruction and all that or whatever, but just his mindset as far as hustling. I’m a big fan of Pablo,” East said.
“So me going out there, I felt like, ‘Bro, why we don’t just do some music out here? This is a different environment, different everything. It’s not New York, it’s not L.A., it’s not Miami, it’s just different.’”
He continued: “We had the studio set up right in the crib. We actually stayed in one of Pablo’s stash houses. Pool inside the crib, some flavor, flavor, flavor crib. In Medellín. I did maybe 12, 13 records off the album in that house, right in the crib.
“They had the chefs in there making breakfast, wake up, Mike [of the production duo Mike & Keys] already be in there making beats. We’d get to that pool in the crib, jump in the pool.”
Dave East said he even had the opportunity to meet Pablo Escobar’s brother while at the villa, who has one eye as a result of a jail accident.
“I met his brother, his brother got one eye, I guess they sent him some,” the 35-year-old rhymer added. “He was locked up, they sent him some mail or something in the jail, and when he opened it it blew up in his face. I met his brother, though.
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“So that was just a dope experience, being that I watched all them documentaries and been in tune with that. And to go over there and be able to get close like that, and meet his family, and be in the crib he was in and all that was dope.”
Dave East’s Fortune Favors the Bold arrived on July 14 via Def Jam and featured assists from G-Eazy, Tyga, Kid Capri, Ty Dolla $ign, Cordae, Coi Leray, Ghostface Killah and more.
Stream the album below:
