Photo Credit: Richard Saethang
IDK has teamed up with Pusha T for the hard-hitting new single “LiFE 4 A LiFE,” a sobering collaboration that confronts cycles of survival and retaliation in extreme circumstances. The track marks the second time the two artists have worked together, following their 2019 collaboration “Porno,” and serves as a key statement for IDK’s forthcoming mixtape E.T.D.S. – Even the Devil Smiles, out January 23rd.
“LiFE 4 A LiFE” is stark and confrontational. The production is stripped back and tense, built around deliberate drums and a cold, minimalist atmosphere that leaves plenty of space for the lyrics to land. IDK delivers his verses with reflection. Unflinching as he walks listeners through a mentality he says he first encountered after being incarcerated at just 17 years old. Pusha T comes in adding gravity and lived-in authority to the song’s themes of consequence and moral reckoning.
IDK has shared that Pusha T was always the intended collaborator, sending the track to him immediately after it was finished. “A few months later, right before he released the Clipse album Let God Sort Em Out, he called me,” IDK shared. “After the call, he sent me a photo of his handwritten verse, then asked for my email and where to send it. Everything aligned naturally.” Together, they deliver a powerful, unromanticized look at survival and consequence, setting the tone for Even the Devil Smiles as a project about second chances, awareness and breaking cycles rather than being defined by them.
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