Drake’s Engineer Finally Reveals the Origin of the ‘6’ Tag

Drake’s beloved 2015 mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late featured the debut of his iconic ‘6’ tag, and now we finally know where it came from.

In an interview with Complex for an article celebrating the ten-year anniversary of IYRTITL, assistant engineer Evan Stewart spoke about the iconic ‘6’ tag that made its debut on the project, which was previously speculated to be a sample. “So… the 66666 thing, that’s not a sample, Stewart said. “Jelleestone, he was like the biggest rapper to make it from Toronto back in the ‘90s, we got him to do it because he’s got a really big, deep voice. I drove to go pick him up and brought him in. He went, ‘123456789—it’s the 10 crack commandments.’ So I recorded that. I guess I’m on a lot of different records because of that too.”

The sound was prominently featured throughout the record and on Drake’s OVO Sound Radio, which premiered on Apple Music’s Beats 1 in July 2015. Fans speculated if the tag was a sample, with some suggesting it was from The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Ten Crack Commandments.” That track sampled a line from Chuck D of Public Enemy counting down on their 1991 song “Shut ‘Em Down,” which is strikingly similar to the tag on Drake’s output. In reality, it’s Toronto rapper Jelleestone, who scored a number of hits in Canada in the early ’00s.

In the feature celebrating ten years of If You’re Reading This, Stewart also spoke about the “ghostwriting” allegations that followed Drizzy after the release of the tape.

“So the whole ‘ghostwriting’ thing… One thing about it all is they kind of take a different approach to rap music,” Stewart explained. “It’s not your typical, just sit there and bars, bars, bars. It’s a pop music approach when it comes to making rap music. Like, they’re looking for the best songs, the best lyrics, the best beats, and they’re trying to make the best song they possibly can with what they get. That’s their outlook on it.”