Joyner Lucas talks how Atlantic Records didn’t care about him shooting a video with Eminem

Joyner Lucas and Dhruv Joshi have recently sat down with Math Hoffa and the crew on My Expert Opinion podcast where the two talked about many topics, including Atlantic Records not backing them up to shoot the video of “Lucky You” with Eminem in Detroit.

“I tried to get the first class flight to shoot the video of Lucky You with Eminem in Detroit. They told me no. Label told me no. [That’s a single. That’s top 3 record on Billboard. He about to shoot the video with Em] Nothing they did. I built the relationship with Royce by myself. Shout out to my brother Royce. I built the relationship directly with Royce and then we went through Marshall and I built my own relationship with him in which we did the record and I had to go to Detroit to shoot the video. I had asked Atlantic if they could pay for the first class cause again, I’m not making money at that time. I took $100,000 in advance from my deal in 2016. I shoot that video in 2018. [So that $100k is gone bro. It’s two years].” said Joyner Lucas.

Then he continued: “First thing I did with $100k, I retired my mom. I gave her half. We got pay cut and it ended up like $60k and $30k I gave to my mom to quit a job. Apart from that, I asked Atlantic if they could pay for the first class flight and they told me no. Not a private jet or something. Just a first class flight to Detroit. How much is that? $800? $700? Them n-ggas would not pay for my first class flight so I said ‘Dhruv, we gotta get the f–k off this label bro.’ They did not give a f–k I was doing a video with Em.”

The official video of “Lucky You,” directed by James Larese, was released on September 13, 2018. In the video, it follows Eminem and Lucas in combat vests and pants strolling throughout the ruins of a city. It includes wrecked cars and abandoned buildings. Throughout the video, multiple hooded men with black sweatshirts appear to be “copying” whatever the rappers are doing. This is supposed to be a shot at the new generation of rappers copying what the bigger artists are doing. One scene includes them performing random dances, which the hooded men copied. In the middle of Eminem’s verse, a gunshot from the original track goes off, sending the hooded men into the sky. The video ends with the two rappers walking away from the swarm.

“Lucky You” is one of the most successful singles for Joyner Lucas as it debut at No. 6 on US Billboard Hot 100 and entered into the Top 10 charts in 20 different countries. The song went triple platinum in the United States and platinum in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The song was nominated at the 2019 Grammy Awards in the Best Rap Song category.