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Drake caused a stir over the weekend when he finally uploaded his FOMO short film to YouTube, along with the individual music videos to most of the songs shared during the movie. The Toronto rapper debuted the hour-long special on Tuesday, September 15th.
In the original version of FOMO - which, of course, stands for Fear Of Missing Out - Drake debuts the full version of his long-teased remix of Ella Langley's ’Choosin’ Texas’. To fans’ surprise and excitement, it features a guest verse from Don Toliver.
But in this re-uploaded edition of FOMO, eagle-eyed fans have noticed that the ‘God's Plan’ hitmaker has seemingly removed some footage of him backstage with Langley.
The shots of Drake and his team backstage at that show, which took place in North Little Rock, Arkansas, have been kept in, along with a brief clip of him hanging out with ERNEST.
But there used to be footage of Langley backstage, too. Instead, there is a quick clip of the ‘Choosin’ Texas’ singer-songwriter on-stage, but no further appearances from Langley.
Some fans have been panicking and speculating that this could mean there's an issue with the ‘Choosin‘ Texas’ remix, or that there's some kind of beef between Drake and Langley.
However, we'd argue that, on the contrary, this could be a sign that Drake and Don Toliver's ‘Choosin‘ Texas’ remix is being readied for a streaming release. It seems likely that Drake is conscious of not taking attention from Langley's original version of the song for the time being, as she eyes the all-time Billboard Hot 100 record.
‘Choosin‘ Texas’ is widely expected to notch a 23rd week at the pinnacle on the prestigious all-genre chart, which would make it the longest-running No. 1 in Hot 100 history, surpassing Mariah Carey's much-loved holiday hit, ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’.
We suspect that, rather than being an indication of any behind-the-scenes disagreement or inter-label quarrelling, Drake removing Langley could merely be a way of him temporarily distancing the country titan from his and Toliver's rap-leaning remix.
In the newly edited version of FOMO, Langley's absence means that this ‘Choosin’ Texas’ remix feels more like an R&B-infused homage to the original song, rather than anything that the ‘Be Her’ singer-songwriter is directly involved in.
We reckon that, once ‘Choosin‘ Texas’ starts to run out of steam on the Hot 100, Drake and Toliver might choose that as the perfect time to release their reimagined version, so as to both add to the excitement and to give an extra boost to Langley's original.
We're also hoping that, although it sounds like Drake and Toliver have pretty much completed their ‘Choosin’ Texas’ remix, there might still be time for Langley to add some vocals on the revamped song, elevating this into a genre-blurring collaboration.
Drake has been open about his admiration for Langley, and his love of country music as a whole, and we therefore highly doubt there's any ill-will between him and Langley.
Which is why we think the fact that ’Choosin‘ Texas (Remix)’ is not one of the clips that Drake has uploaded separately on YouTube, along with other unreleased tracks like ‘Cold Shoulder’ - another Toliver link-up - is cause for excitement, not concern.
It seems Drake is holding these unreleased tracks back for something else, perhaps even a new project arriving in his birth-month, October. If so, we can't wait to be able to stream ‘Choosin’ Texas (Remix)’, hopefully as part of a brand new Drake album - his fourth of the year - and hopefully with some fresh Langley vocals, too.
