A handwritten tracklist for Rakim, Kurupt, and Masta Killa’s upcoming album seemed to promise a collaboration with Eminem and Jay-Z. The reality seems to be far less dramatic.
Mighty three
The album unites three legendary names: New York veteran MC Rakim, Californian Kurupt, and Wu-Tang Clan member Masta Killa. They already have a joint together, “BE ILL”, an opener for Rakim’s 2024 album G.O.D.’s Network: REB7RTH.
Now, they are taking that collaboration further with a full album project. Rakim dropped an announcement, without revealing the title, tracklist, or an exact release date. However, did confirm an August release window.
Another piece of information Rakim shared with his followers is the name of an executive producer working on this project. Actually, he tagged both the legacy account of Oliver “Power” Grant, a cofounder, executive producer, and key figure in Wu-Tang Clan’s business operations, who died in February 2026, and Matthew “M80” Markoff. The latter served as an executive producer on Rakim’s REB7RTH, describing the project as accomplishing for Rakim what he felt Dr. Dre never did.
The mystery of an Eminem feature
Later, M80 shared a handwritten draft of the tracklist. There are no song titles, but there are features listed for every song on the album that is not marked as Solo for one of the main album artists.
The position that has drawn most attention was “Six w/ Eminem and Jay-Z (Interlude)”. Many fans immediately assumed that the historic collaboration between 5 artists is coming. Others noticed the word “interlude” and theorised that it would use interview snippets with praise towards Rakim, as it precedes Rakim’s solo song on the album.
Finding praise for Rakim from Eminem would not be difficult. His respect for Rakim is widely known. Em talked about it in his interviews and mentioned it on social media. Moreover, Rakim and Kurupt often spoke of their respect for Eminem and his music.
All this being said, the upcoming album track that ignited so many discussions will not be a rap track. M80 confirmed it in a comment directly:
There is no rapping on the Em x Jay interlude.
The Mighty 80 Factor
This trick is similar to what M80 used for Australian rapper Dheezy recently. Dheezy’s album is stacked with big features, such as Royce 5’9, Kurupt, Snoop Dogg, Onyx, and E-40. Even more, the list includes four already dead artists: Proof, Nate Dogg, Chino XL, and Coolio. Also, it has widely advertised input from Eminem.
The mystery of a star feature becomes easier to understand if you look closer at what M80 is proficient at. M80 has been around for many years, moving from his own rap career to working with the business and legal side of hip hop. He holds a Guinness World Record for the longest freestyle ever recorded at 9 hours, 15 minutes, and 15 seconds. Also, Matthew Markoff went to law school to study advanced civil litigation, advanced contracts, and intellectual property. All this knowledge came in handy, as now he runs the licensing business, buying and selling verses and beats.
Some years ago, Markoff talked about it in an interview: “A lot of people think that it’s only like buying from major artists and selling to independents. It’s literally anyone and everyone”, M80 reveals. He then talked about an Onyx album, for which a label bought “a shit ton of verses” from him and put some of them on an Onyx album to fill space. M80 credits his partner, Anno Domini, for inventing the production licensing business. Together, they offer hundreds of their clients fully licensed beats at $25-100, while some pay $5,000 or $10,000 for an exclusive beat.
The majority of the verses available for sale, M80 acquired when he served as an A&R and doubled as an exec on different albums. “This means I have a financial hold on the product, I invested in the record”, M80 explains. “We’re talking records from Wu-Tang members, Crooked I, Kurupt, Asia, Big Twins, Hus Kingpin and Canibus, and the list goes on and on and on. 150+ albums, and I didn’t save the files for every album I’ve ever worked on. But I would make sure I had the sign-offs in my name, in my company name. In the paperwork is the right to assign and transfer”.
Markoff admits that not everybody is happy with such an arrangement. “There are two ways to look at this. Some artists are not cool with this side of my business at all. Because they feel like it invalidates the integrity of the art. ‘I did this verse for this song. I did not do it for what you then licensed it for’”. Yet the business is still blooming. M80, with his legal background and extensive connections in hip hop, offers affordable, accessible options for those who cannot afford or do not merit exclusivity. “I might have a Gucci verse, but if you want to license it, it’s $5000”, explains Markoff. “Because otherwise, if you want an exclusive from him, that’s $50,000 to $100,000 plus, you never know, it depends on who the artist is”.
His company also sells derivative rights to EDM artists, allowing them to use a verse from Lil Wayne on a dance track. But there are certain boundaries M80 is not ready to cross. For instance, he would respect personal tensions and beefs between artists. “I’m not going to sell the same person a Lil’ Wayne and Birdman verse, and that was a highly sought-after thing while they were beefing. No, not going to happen for any amount of money. I wouldn’t sell someone a Lil’ Wayne and Pusha T verse”.
As M80 gets seemingly more comfortable with this business, it might explain why an artist like, for instance, Dheezy would have such a star-studded album. Of course, artists of such calibre as Kurupt, Rakim, and Masta Killa are capable of sourcing fresh verses from the best rappers alive. Eminem and Jay-Z, however, are clearly not among those who contributed a verse to this project.