Don Toliver made the quantum leap to rap’s A list with the arrival of the Houston native’s OCTANE album in January. Toliver’s fifth LP topped the Billboard 200 with 162,000 album units earned — his first No. 1 — and all 18 tracks landed on the Billboard Hot 100.
The 31-year-old stopped by the Billboard House @ SXSW on Friday (March 13) ahead of his headlining performance later that night at The Stage at SXSW.
Sitting down with Billboard staff writer Michael Saponara, Toliver discussed OCTANE‘s success, having Travis Scott as a mentor, sampling Justin Timberlake on “BODY” and already starting to work on his next album.
Even six weeks after its arrival, “BODY” currently remains inside the Hot 100’s top 25 (No. 23). Toliver gushed about his fandom of Timberlake, but admitted he didn’t initially recognize the “Rock Your Body” sample when he was recording the track.
“Honestly, I love Justin Timberlake a lot. My mom played him, Pharrell and Outkast and all these crazy great artists when I was growing up as a kid in the car,” Toliver explained. “I got a lot of fond memories of that. Justin Timberlake is always one of my favorites. Justified, that album is literally in my top 10 favorite albums of all time.
He continued: “I didn’t think that deep into it. As I sat with it for like a week, I was like, ‘Hold on, this is literally one of my favorite songs of all-time.’ ‘Rock Your Body’ is one of those songs that triggers an endorphin in my body. To put those two together was so iconic for me.”
Toliver reconnected with his Cactus Jack mentor, Travis Scott, on OCTANE standout “Rosary,” but it was an 11th-hour appearance from La Flame, who sent over his vocals nearly at the buzzer. Their relationship has grown since Don T signed to Cactus Jack in partnership with Atlantic Records in 2018.
“I really try to keep the relationship that me and him have as far away from music as I can sometimes,” he said. “At the end of the day, we are human beings.”
Toliver added: “This album, I was like, ‘Whatever Travis wanna do — he could pull up however he wanna do it. I just wanted to make sure he understood my journey with the music when I played it for him. He just caught a vibe for ‘Rosary’ and he understood my idea for it. It was crazy, I really love his verse on the song.”
Even though OCTANE arrived less than two months ago, Toliver revealed he’s already working on his next album.
“I am already working on my next album,” he said. “To be honest, bro, I just realized within myself that I just love music and I just feel like right now if I don’t put out anything, I just need to capture this moment because it’s a lot going on in my life when I was making this album and when it came out and it’s just fueling me to be as creative as I can possibly be.”
In addition to panel conversations all weekend, Billboard House is also hosting daily performers, with Dizzy Fae, Alicia Creti, Kairo Keyz and Babyfxce E taking the stage on Friday’s day 1. DJ Cortez also provided daytime sounds for the space.
Watch the full interview with Don Toliver below.
