A few weeks back, Flint rapper BFB Da Packman dropped Forget Me Not, his first album in three years. Before the release, he heightened fan anticipation when he revealed a Drake collaboration on “Olympic Shit Talkin,” a song that also features a verse from the currently incarcerated Rio Da Yung OG. But just before Forget Me Not dropped, Kendrick Lamar threw shots at Drake on Future and Metro-Boomin’s “Like That,” reshaping fan expectations for the Toronto rapper’s next verse. He opted not to clear his appearance on Packman’s song, which cost the “Free Joe Exotic” rapper his biggest look yet.
While grabbing lunch in Houston, Packman tells Rolling Stone over the phone that for now he’s staying mum about Drake’s would-be “Olympic Shit Talkin” feature. “I kind of feel bad talking about it,” he says. “I want to talk about it, but I can’t.” He says he first connected with Drake through a mutual friend of the two, noting, “It was a favor. Drake fuck with the Michigan boys, man.” But cashing in that favor will have to wait. “Whenever bro says it’s cool,” he’ll release the song with Drake’s verse.
Even without Drake, “Olympic Shit Talkin” is still a standout track from the aptly titled Forget Me Not. Packman, who started rapping after a stint in the US Postal Service, is known for the outrageous bars displayed on “OST” with Rio. His breakout hit, 2020’s “Free Joe Exotic,” sparked attention with side-splitting bars like, ”If my bitch say, ‘Bless you,’ when you sneeze, you can have her” and, “She said she can feel it in her stomach, stop capping / Ol’ lyin’ ass bitch, my dick ain’t that big.” Since then, on projects like 2021’s Fat Niggas Need Love Too, he’s become am indelible, hilarious figure in the Michigan rap scene.
Packman’s appeal is apparent on “Olympic Shit Talkin,” where he and Rio trade predictably raw Michigan bars over a sinister piano melody crafted by producers Caasi & Dxntemadeit. “She sucked the life out the dick, then I fell in love / I broke up with my broke bitch, then I leveled up,” Rio starts off. Packman follows up by rhyming, “Got an eight of Actavis from my aunt Ginger, “ then “Fuck a bitch until I got the gummy ’cause I ain’t quittin’,” The two go back and forth throughout the song, which he says came from a feature exchange.
“He was like, ‘Bro, I’m creating an album, send me something,’ so I sent him something,” he says. “I’m like, ‘I need you for my album,’ and he sent me something.” He says he wrote the song, then chopped the verse up, leaving spaces for Rio to jump in — including the opening four bars. Fans criticizing the vocal quality of Rio’s verse may not realize it was recorded from a jail phone.
While “Olympic Shit Talkin” is the quintessential Packman experience, he says he opted to be more sparse with those kind of songs, offering more variety throughout the project to push past the label of being a “Michigan rapper” and court mass appeal. “For some reason, that Michigan shit don’t make you top tier. Yeah, we have a buzz. Yeah, we have a wave, but that shit don’t never chart like that,” he surmises. “Only song that charted like that, that was on some Michigan time is Tee Grizzley [“First Day Out”].”
Packman says Forget Me Not was crafted from motivation from being counted out by fans who accused him of “falling off” after his release schedule slowed. He dropped a project’s worth of singles since 2021’s Fat Niggas Need Love Too, but not an actual album. When asked what’s behind the gap in full-length releases he’s blunt: “Laziness is real. That shit like crack, for real.” But Packman says he eventually snapped out of his creative malaise after realizing it was “now or never” for his career. “It was either, bitch, rap your ass off or you going back to the post office,” he says. “Which one?”
He opted for the first choice, and the result is a strong project that he says is the start of more regular drops. “I ain’t made it far, nigga. I’m just down the street,” he says, adding “I just got to keep grindin’.” The Drake verse might have had him speeding down the highway, but there’s still time for that. When I asked him what he would’ve done if Drake sent him a new verse laden with Kendrick Lamar disses, he says he “fucks with Kendrick” but “I would have put that bitch out faster than a motherfucker, man.”