Drake is credited with making the phrase “no new friends” wildly popular in a DJ Khaled song last year, but, according to a throwback interview with Kanye West published this month by Complex, the controversial rapper actually coined the phrase way back in 2003 when he considered getting a “no new friends” tattoo inspired by Jay-Z. Believe it or not, Kanye West in his early 20’s was a new talent struggling to make ends meet, while his mentor Jay-Z was a multimillionaire, but he still felt a connection to the rapper, who Kanye credits with his early rise in the music industry. During the interview, Kanye says, “If anybody owes me nothing, it’s Jay-Z because he’s done so much for me.” #nonewfriends.
“No new friends” is a popular phrase in and outside of hip hop, used to depict a sense of cohesiveness among friends, as well as an aversion to new “fair weather friends.” Today, “no new friends” is commonly used as a hashtag on social media, but back in 2003, Kanye used the phrase to describe his new-found relationship with rap mogul Jay-Z. During the old-school interview, a struggling Kanye had the following to say about Jay-Z:
I talk with him because the thing is, I think we have a lot in common. But, you have to think, I’m in my early 20’s, he’s in his early 30’s. I’m on the train trying to come up with money to jut get around the city and the only protection I have from the weather is a heavy ass winter coat. He’s a multi-millionaire superstar—where’s the connection? We can talk in the studio. He’s been in the game so long and what I’ve learned also, actually, I was going to get me a tattoo that says, “No new friends.”
Kanye elaborates on his “new new friends” concept, saying “So many people will try to befriend [Jay-Z] or get close to him for whatever reason. I’m never the type to use that method in order to get what I want out of somebody. Jay-Z blesses me by rapping on my tracks.”
Fast forward ten years and Drake is applying the same concept to his own music, sort of passing off the “no new friends” phrase as his own along the way. In DJ Khaled’s song “No New Friends,” Drake raps: “Stay down with my day one n****, and we in the club screaming / No new friends, no new friends, no new friends, no no new.” It’s true that Kanye may be over his earlier “no new friends” tattoo days, but Drake is all over it now, and the Canadian-born singer is known for getting tattoos inspired by certain song lyrics and his strong friendship with the YMCMB crew. Maybe the next Drake tattoo will read “no new friends” to match the other random acronyms and back tattoos he has dedicated to his Young Money boys.
