IDK’s first Shady Records single puts Eminem on a J Dilla beat, and Proof’s son drives Dilla’s Escalade in the video

IDK grew up memorising Eminem verses. On Friday he became one of Eminem’s artists.

The rapper and producer, who is British-American and came up in the DMV area around Washington DC, announced a partnership with Shady Records and Interscope Records on Friday 13 November, US time. The first release under the deal is “WELCOME”, which features Eminem and is built on a production by J Dilla, the Detroit producer who died in 2006 at 32 and whose beats still sit at the centre of hip-hop’s idea of soul.

IDK called the moment “a statement for hip-hop itself”, saying he knew how important the chance was.

What exactly did he sign?

The announcement describes a partnership rather than a straight record deal, and it covers IDK’s future releases. The single is credited to Clue No Clue LLC, IDK’s own company, under an exclusive licence to Shady and Interscope. No money, length of term or album date has been made public.

Shady Records was founded in 1999 by Eminem and his manager, Paul Rosenberg, and has released its records through Interscope since. Its roster has run from 50 Cent and D12 to the Filipino rapper Ez Mil.

Why does the video matter so much?

Because it is a Detroit family photo. The black-and-white clip, directed by Vuhlandes, moves through the city: dancers jitting, dice games, industrial sites and warehouse parties. IDK rides through it in a mid-2000s Cadillac Escalade that once belonged to Dilla.

The man driving is Nasaan, the son of Proof, the D12 rapper and Eminem’s closest friend, who died in Detroit in 2006, the same year as Dilla. For Detroit hip-hop fans, putting Proof’s son behind the wheel of Dilla’s car is not a cameo. It is a tribute that ties two of the city’s great losses to the label that grew out of the same scene.

A five-minute mini-documentary, NO PLAN B, was released alongside it. It follows IDK from his early days in the DMV to his studio meeting with Eminem.

How did a DMV rapper end up at Shady?

IDK has said the first rap album he ever owned was 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’, itself a Shady release, and that Eminem’s were the first rap verses he set out to learn by heart.

“When I first started making music, it was supposed to be a hobby,” he said of the deal. He has said the partnership lets him learn from a label staff with decades of experience, and bring something new to Shady and Interscope in return.

He arrives with a crowded 2026 behind him. In January he released the mixtape E.T.D.S. (Even the Devil Smiles), which included a posthumous DMX feature on a Kaytranada production, cleared by DMX’s estate. In June he appeared on “Beyond the Brilliant Haze”, a collaboration with Peter Gabriel and Everything Is Recorded. He has also produced and taught a lecture series at Harvard. Few artists bring rap, art-pop and a lecture hall to the same label.

Why this week?

Timing. On Thursday, Eminem’s 1996 debut, Infinite, reached streaming services for the first time, as a six-track edition with new remixes, 30 years after it flopped on a small Detroit label. A day later, Shady looked forward instead, with a new artist introduced by Eminem himself on the track and a Dilla beat underneath. Labels rarely give a new signing a bigger welcome than that.

Can Australians hear it?

Yes. “WELCOME” is out now on streaming services in Australia.