Fat Joe and Remy Ma’s “All The Way Up” was a big song: Although it only managed a peak at No. 27 on the Hot 100 chart, it because Fat Joe’s only 2-time Platinum single, and it earned him a pair of Grammy nominations, for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song. After the initial release, Jay-Z hopped on the official remix, and it turns out that version of the single also almost included Drake. However, Fat Joe has explained why, at Jay-Z’s request, Drake was kept off the song
On a recent episode of Open Late With Peter Rosenberg, Joe told the story, saying that Jay-Z didn’t want anybody else on the remix because it was his and Joe’s first song together since ending their long-standing beef:
“I always wanted to do a song with Jay-Z. I’m honored that he got on the remix. The craziest story is that I got a FaceTime call maybe three different times while ‘All The Way Up’ was out, and it was your man, the 6 God, Drake. He called me three different occasions out of nowhere, ‘Yo, send me the instrumental, send me the instrumental to ‘All The Way Up.” But, when I told Hov we were doing the song, he said ‘Look, Joe. It means so much to our history between me and you, let’s not put nobody else on the song.’ He’s not referring to Drake [specifically]… it could have been Kanye. 50 Cent was asking me to get on the remix. […] I’m beyond a huge fan of Drake, but I had to keep my word. My word is everything. So when I told Jay-Z, ‘Nah, nobody else is on the song,’ I had to keep my word. But man, I wish it was Jay-Z, Drake, Fat Joe, and Remy [Ma].”
Watch the full Open Late episode below, with the Drake story coming at about 29 minutes into the video.