Rob49 Responds to Negative Reception to Justin Bieber’s Verse on Unreleased ‘WTHelly’ Remix

Rob49 has spoken about the negative reception Justin Bieber‘s verse got on his “WTHelly” remix, and tells Billboard he doesn’t know if he’s gonna drop it.

The New Orleans rapper speaks about his new album, Let Me Fly, and touches on the divisive reception he got after teasing an unreleased remix of “WTHelly” featuring Biebs. After teasing the song on a Twitch livestream with the streamer Reggie, fans were quick to clown the pop star for trying to turn a lighthearted track into a soulful ballad. Rob said after speaking with Justin, he doesn’t know if he’ll officially release it to the public.

“I talked to Justin a couple of days ago and he was telling me he wanted to do some more songs, so I don’t know,” Rob says when when discussing whether he’ll drop off the remix. “It’s funny, when he first did it he was like, ‘What you think? You think I can go harder?’ I told him like, ‘Man, I love it bro, if you feel comfortable about it, if you like it, then I love it.’ You know? I just told him, ‘If you like it you like it.”

When asked about whether he was surprised the verse was so divisive, Rob shares, “No, not really. I knew it was a possibility because, it was the same way when he asked me, ‘Do you think I can go harder?'”

Rob admits that he knew the singing aspect of Bieber’s verse would turn some heads, and said that’s just how it goes when trying to make a hit record.

“You just never know what it’s gonna be, and fans don’t understand that all the time,” he says. “That you don’t know what a hit is! Like it just kinda happens. Some people might’ve been like, ‘Oh my god he sung!’ and if it would have been a hit, it would have been a crazy banger. That be the difference between songs.”

However, Rob says other “WTHelly” remixes will soon see the light of day, and that the G Herbo revamp will be the first to arrive.

“I was gonna drop the [remix] with [G Herbo] first and add it to the album, but we wound up doing it too late,” Rob says of why it wasn’t on Let Me Fly. “So it might come out the next day on the album, then we’re just gonna go from there with it.”

Let Me Fly drops Friday (May 23) and includes features from Birdman, Meek Mill, Sexyy Red, Quavo, Polo G and Fridayy.

This article was first published by Billboard U.S.