Key Takeaways:
- Cash Cobain connected with Justin Bieber through Instagram, leading to their “SWAG” collaboration.
- The track was born from a casual studio session in New York, with Bieber later sending a reference.
- The collaboration highlights how sexy drill is gaining traction with mainstream artists and audiences.
Cash Cobain is having quite the year, especially after landing a feature on one of 2025’s biggest albums so far: Justin Bieber’s SWAG. On Tuesday (July 29), the rapper caught up with Rolling Stone to talk about working on the project’s title track.
According to Cobain, the collab started after he slid into Bieber’s DMs following the pop star reposting his “Trippin on a Yacht” on Instagram. They agreed to work together and, somewhere down the line, linked up in New York.
“I pulled up on him. He’s at his crib with a couple of people there. We had, like, a laptop, speakers, and instruments in this circle,” the sexy drill pioneer shared with the publication. “We was just vibing and s**t. A couple of musicians and a couple of other people was there.”
That session ultimately laid the foundation for what would become “SWAG,” although Cobain noted they didn’t finish the track then and there because Bieber had a basketball game to get to. Then, around the time the Grammy-winning singer announced his seventh studio album, Cobain got a reference track from the star.
“I fixed it up and then the next day or the day after the next day, that s**t was out,” he explained. Reflecting on what it was like working with Bieber, the “Dunk Contest” artist added, “That n**ga’s a movie.” Take a listen to “SWAG” below.
Bieber’s SWAG arrived on July 11 with a whopping 21 tracks, including his Sexyy Red collaboration, “SWEET SPOT,” and the Gunna-assisted “WAY IT IS.” Other contributions came from Lil B and Druski, the latter of whom appeared across three skits.
Even with all that star power, SWAG couldn’t topple Travis Scott’s JACKBOYS 2 compilation. As Rap-Up previously reported, the Houston rapper debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with nearly 70,000 more album-equivalent units than Bieber’s still-impressive 163,000 in sales.