Irv Gotti Taps Kanye West for 'Tales' Song 'Brothers'

Tonight, Irv Gotti will kick off the second season of his BET anthology series “Tales” with a brand new song from Kanye West called “Brothers.”

Ahead of the premiere, the legendary hip-hop mogul and actor-singer Elijah Kelley sat down with Rap-Up to discuss the highly-anticipated track, which was produced by Gotti and Channel 7 and features Charlie Wilson. According to Gotti, it was no easy task securing the controversial rapper. In fact, Ye only signed off a few weeks ago.

“It took me close to two years to deliver Kanye,” said Gotti. “I love you Kanye, but you have to deal with this major, catastrophically big artist. I just can’t say, ‘Hey, give me a record.’ This isn’t the MC down the block. It’s Kanye West. So it’s gotta be perfect.”

Kanye originally suggested that he use “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” for the episode, but Gotti wanted a new song. “I said, ‘Ye, that’s not special.’ What’s special is a brand new record,” he said before praising Ye. “Kanye is a good guy, man. People need to know that about Kanye. He has a lot of misconceptions. He was in London and he called me. He said, ‘Yo, let’s do the ‘Brothers’ record. He was on some brotherly love, helping his brother out. It came from a great place.”

“Brothers” soundtracks the two-hour episode, which stars Kelley, Thomas Q. Jones, and Isaiah Washington. “It touches on father-son relationships, family, love, and then of course, two brothers and how they could have falling outs but then they understand what’s truly important—coming together,” said Gotti. “It’s just a really, really, really great father-son and brother-man episode.”

Season 2 of “Tales” premieres tonight at 9 p.m. EST on BET.