Pusha T Has Written Vicious Verses…And An Iconic Fast Food Jingle (Video)

Pusha T’s catalog of hits includes “Grindin’,” “Mercy,” and “Runaway.” The Virginia Beach, Virginia MC has a discography that spans more than 15 years. However, the same week he released the highly-anticipated single “Drug Dealers Anonymous” from his sophomore studio album, King Push, a new revelation was made surrounding his writing abilities.

Veteran music executive Steve Stoute and journalist Kazeem Famuyide were guests on HOT 97’s Ebro In The Morning show. The founder of Translation—Stoute’s company which included Jay Z as an early investor–explained some highlights of the last 11 years of his company.

Stoute is known for his time managing Nas and Mary J. Blige, and working for years at Interscope Records. However, he said that one of the earliest moves at Translation was working with McDonald’s on one of the most recognizable campaigns of recent times.

“Our first big thing was launching ‘I’m Lovin’ It’ for McDonald’s. That was in 2004,” he says just over 3:00 into the interview. Ebro states that he understood Pharrell Williams wrote all of the music and lyrics. “You know who did that? Pusha T did that. That’s crazy that Pusha T wrote the song for McDonald’s! That was Pusha, yeah.” Ebro asked what the payouts looked like for creating the slogan. “I can’t remember; that was 11 years ago. Nobody was upset.” Stoute continues, “They never had a tag-line that they used all over the world before that.”

Translation presently works on branding for State Farm Insurance, NBA, and Budweiser. They helped launch the Made In America Festival.

Elsewhere in the interview, Steve Stoute discusses Nas’ writing rhymes for another close client, Will Smith. Just before 17:00, Steve says, “One of the best things that happened to me was Will Smith—in ’95, ’96, Will Smith got dropped by Jive Records.” He said the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania MC was overlooked due to popularized hardcore Hip-Hop and Gangsta Rap. “Nobody wanted to hear that. So he literally lost his recording contract. I signed him to Sony. The first thing we did was ‘Men In Black,’ which sold 10 million.”