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Rap sensation Post Malone’s producer Michael Cash has unveiled the story of a near-collaboration between the hip-hop star and legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Sounds like the crossover we didn’t know we needed.

In a new tell-all interview with Rolling Stone, Cash spoke about the project that was tantalisingly close to realisation but ultimately met a premature end.

Cash’s ‘big idea’ was for contemporary rappers to craft songs based on previously unearthed and unused lyrics penned by Bob Dylan. He envisioned a modern-day take on the concept behind the 2014 tribute record ‘Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes’ where artists like Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford, and Rhiannon Giddens breathed life into Dylan’s forgotten lyrics.

Dubbed ‘The Attic MP3s’, Cash’s project was supposed to showcase performances from revered artists like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Post Malone.

While the project ultimately fizzled, Cash revealed that it was THIS CLOSE to becoming a reality.

Dylan’s team green-lit Post Malone’s participation, sending him lyrics from an unreleased song called ‘Be Not Deceived’.

Apparently Cash and Jeff Rosen, Dylan’s longstanding representative, had a solid back-and-forth going around the song’s production. Cash explained, “Jeff texts me: ‘Bob’s going to write you something. He’s got something in mind that he wants to craft specifically for this.'”

The lyrics struck a chord. Posty revealed that he was moved to tears immediately upon reading Dylan’s carefully-crafted words.

So, in March 2021, Post Malone managed to create about “40 per cent” of the song in studio before he had to leave for an unidentified reason.

“We got the stenciling done, he got some colors in, but he definitely wasn’t finished,” Cash explained.

Despite all the good news, the song eventually stagnated into a yawn-worthy “circular, figure-eight pattern,” according to Cash.

In light of this, the Dylan team decided to step back. Cash lamented that, “Rosen said to me at a certain point, ‘Well, we’re just going to retract the lyrics.'”

What could have been the music collab of the century got thrown out at the drop of a hat. I guess once you enter awkward territory in these kinds of dealings, there’s no going back. Cash elaborated that the whole thing devolved into a really strange situation.

“It just seems like nobody really managed expectations, and it just seems like nobody communicated. A really cool piece of music got made, and then it just got weird. It got really weird.”

Well, I doubt either Dylan or Post Malone are particularly bothered, as both stars continue to flourish in their respective music worlds. Bob Dylan will be touring North American in 2023 and Post Malone has just released a critically acclaimed album titled ‘Austin’.

I’m still holding onto a spark of hope that the collaborative concept album will still see the light of day. And how about adding other rappers to the list? I’m thinking of Doja Cat with Bob Dylan lyrics.

Now that’s something I’d have to hear to believe.

[source:nme]