Ed Lover and Donnie Wahlberg Reminisce Over 20 + Year Relationship

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Ed Lover caught up with New Kids On The Block's Donnie Wahlberg to go down memory lane, discuss life during quarantine, and New Kids On The Block's new song for charity "House Party."

Wahlberg and his New Kids On The Block bandmates have been holding group chats with fans and got inspired to write new music. "I started doing group chats with New Kids fans and with the band. Those were really lifting up our fans. In one of the chats a fan asked if we were doing new music and I said, 'yeah if someone wants to send me a song I'll have a song in a week,'" Wahlberg said.

A producer sent Wahlberg a song and he immediately got to work on it. 

B2M, Big Freedia, NBN, and Jordin Sparks all hopped on the song with Donnie titled "House Party." All proceeds of the song go to the charity No Kid Hungry which has already raised almost a quarter of a million dollars. 

Donnie also dropped some MAJOR news about a new collaboration with Naughty By Nature. He'd been working with Naughty By Nature's KayGee on the 30th anniversary of New Kids On The Block's album Hangin' Tough when they began working on material of their own. "We've been talking for a while about doing a Naughty Kids On The Block album," Wahlberg said.
"The songs we did were during the Hangin' Tough 30th anniversary and Kay produced all of them. Treach is already rhyming on them and we're like, 'maybe this is that time.' I think we're definitely going to explore it, I don't know how we don't do it eventually we've been talking about it for so long."

Ed Lover also gave Donnie a tough task. Name the GOAT in hip hop. Without missing a beat, he said it was Rakim. Wahlberg attributed his laid back style as a game changer. In a time where mc's took an aggressive style, Rakim's cool flow set him apart.

"He created slogans and sayings that people say to this day. Every rapper that came after him was now allowed to take that laid back approach and have that cool flow," Wahlberg said.

"The one I can never bump out of the number one spot is Rakim. I can play with number two, three, four, or five, but I can't bump Rakim out of that number one spot!"