Eminem Joins IDK For First Dilla Collaboration

IDK and Eminem released “WELCOME” at midnight on Friday, November 13, 2026, a new single produced by the late J Dilla that puts Eminem on a Dilla beat on a released record for the first time. The IDK Eminem “WELCOME” release arrived with a second announcement attached: IDK has partnered with Eminem’s Shady Records and Interscope Records for all of his future releases.

Eminem Raps On A Dilla Beat For The First Time

The pairing at the centre of the record has been possible on paper for three decades and has never happened until now. Eminem and J Dilla both came out of the same Detroit underground scene in the 1990s, but as Stereogum reported, Eminem himself never rapped on a Dilla beat while Dilla was alive, and no released Eminem performance over Dilla production existed before today, two decades after Dilla’s death in 2006. Dilla did work with Proof, Eminem’s late mentor and fellow D12 member, including in a duo called the Funky Cowboys, which makes the gap in Eminem’s own catalogue harder to explain and this record harder to dismiss as a routine feature.

It was not for lack of chances. Hip Hop Hero, reporting the release, recounted that on the Paul Pod in 2022, Eminem’s manager Paul Rosenberg revealed that the beat for A Tribe Called Quest’s “Get a Hold” originally belonged to Eminem: Proof gave it to him, and Eminem wrote to it, but the song was never released. Big Sean later came close to closing the same gap on his 2020 album Detroit 2, before Eminem instead appeared on the posse cut “Friday Night Cypher.” On “WELCOME,” Eminem handles the hook, and Consequence quoted the opening of it: “Welcome to the party where everybody dies at the end / Move your body / This is ’bout to be a homicide scene.” IDK, the Maryland raised rapper born Jason Mills, carries the verses over a beat Dilla left behind.

IDK Partners With Shady Records And Interscope

The business news is the bigger story for IDK’s career. uDiscover Music, the Universal Music publication, confirmed that IDK has partnered with Shady Records and Interscope Records for all future releases, with “WELCOME” as the first release under the arrangement. AllHipHop reported that Interscope announced the partnership on Friday alongside the single; no financial terms or duration were disclosed. For IDK, who has spent a decade building through independent projects before this point, the deal is a full circle moment he described in his own statement.

“When I first started working on this music, I remember looking up at my ceiling and saying ‘thank you.’ I was speaking to Dilla because it felt like everything that could have been, in a way, started to clear itself organically. I knew this was an important opportunity and a statement for hip hop itself,” IDK said. “The first rap album I’ve ever owned was 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’. A Shady Records release. The first raps I made it a point to memorize were Eminem raps. I’ve been at it for some time now, so to be at the point in my journey seems surreal. I’m excited for this next chapter in my career.” Speaking to The FADER, he added that the partnership lets him “soak in the expertise of literal legends” while bringing “a new flavor to the Shady Records and Interscope.”

A Detroit Video Built Around Dilla’s Own Escalade

The rollout was built as a Detroit tribute rather than a standard single launch. The black and white video for “WELCOME,” directed by Vuhlandes and shot in Detroit, shows IDK riding in a 2004 Cadillac Escalade that once belonged to Dilla himself. The driver is Nasaan, the son of Proof, which threads Eminem’s late best friend through a video that already connects Eminem, Dilla and IDK in one frame. The studio photo IDK and Eminem posted jointly on Wednesday, captioned simply “Welcome,” had pulled hundreds of thousands of likes before a note of the song was public.

The single also arrives with a five minute mini documentary, NO PLAN B, which follows IDK from his early years in the DMV to the studio sessions with Eminem. In it, IDK tells Eminem directly why the partnership matters after years of navigating the business on his own: “Like this is the first time in my career where I feel like I got a team.” The documentary debuted on November 12 as a collaborative upload from the two artists.

What The Signing Sets Up Next

“WELCOME” is set to appear on IDK’s upcoming album, Even the Earth Cries, the follow up to his E.T.D.S. mixtape from earlier this year, a project that carried contributions from Pusha T, RZA, Madlib and No I.D. alongside posthumous appearances from MF DOOM and DMX. His catalogue stretches back to 2014’s Sex, Drugs & Homework, recorded as Jay IDK, through 2019’s Is He Real? and the Kaytranada produced Simple. in 2022. The Shady partnership puts that catalogue’s next chapter inside the label Eminem founded with Paul Rosenberg in 1999, the home that launched D12, Obie Trice and, with Aftermath and Interscope, 50 Cent in 2002, and that most recently brought in Ez Mil in 2023.

The timing adds one more layer. “WELCOME” landed one day after Eminem’s debut album Infinite was reissued as a six song EP, in the week of that record’s 30th anniversary. Thirty years after Eminem started, the newest name on his label has handed him the one collaboration his catalogue was still missing: a released record with the producer his own city produced alongside him, J Dilla.

References

Billboard: Eminem joins IDK for “Welcome” as the DMV rapper signs to Shady Records. The FADER: IDK announces partnership with Eminem’s Shady Records and Interscope Records. uDiscover Music: IDK releases “WELCOME” with Eminem and J Dilla. Stereogum: IDK shares J Dilla produced Eminem collaboration “Welcome.” Consequence: IDK taps Eminem for J Dilla produced new song “WELCOME.” AllHipHop: IDK joins Shady and Interscope for all future releases.