Drakerecently sat down with MTV News in his Canadian hometown and explainedhow the song, produced by Tone Mason and co-produced by his October'sVery Own cohort Noah "40" Shebib, came to fruition.
The track will be included on the rapper's forthcoming debut, Thank Me Later, tentatively slated for a March release.
"WhenI heard that beat, the drums that they had come up with, it was like,'Man, this is a moment,' " he said. " 'This sounds like where I'm at inmy life.' So, we took it and 40 did what he does to pieces of musicthat I see potential in - he took it to the next spot. Jay-Z's on it.The song is phenomenal. It's done now."
The pair previously worked together on Jay-Z's "Off That," from Hov's The Blueprint 3 project.
TheTimbaland-produced track, however, only featured Drake on the hookinstead of contributing a verse alongside Jay. This time, the two MCsboth had their say on "Light Up." Though the upstart MC was able torecruit the Roc Nation head into the fold for his first album, inaddition to expected collabos with Lil Wayne and Kanye West, Drake saidhe's trying to downplay the guest list and focus on his humblebeginnings.
"At the end of the day, one of the biggest things I've been toying with on Thank Me Later is that it's kind of hard for me to come out and be like, 'I'm still the underdog,' " Drake told Mixtape Daily recently.
"I can't rap about the same things [as I did] on So Far Gone,so it's just really trying to tell the greatest story that's never beentold, which is the story of a rapper's come-up, and tell it withoutbeing corny or over-bragging or sounding like, 'Feel sorry for me.'It's going to be a very interesting record because I'm really going tohave to dig deep and tell stories that people can relate to. But it'skind of hard, because my life is at a very different place now. "