Connor Price just dropped a video for “More Mentors” featuring Idris Elba, and the internet can’t stop asking the same question: How did a 26-year-old Canadian rapper end up collaborating with Luther himself?
Turns out, this isn’t new. Price and Elba have been making music together for five years — and their origin story is wilder than you’d think.
It all started in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Elba, who was among the first celebrities to publicly announce his positive COVID diagnosis, released a freestyle about his experience and left the third verse open for anyone who wanted to collaborate. Price, then a relatively unknown artist transitioning from his childhood acting career, saw the opportunity and seized it.
Working quickly, Price recorded his response verse in a single night, mixed it himself, filmed it, and posted it to Instagram — tagging Elba’s account. The next morning, he woke up to notifications that would change his career trajectory: Elba had followed him, commented, and sent a direct message.
What impressed Elba wasn’t just Price’s lyrical skill, but his drive. As someone who had navigated the challenging waters of being an actor pursuing music himself, Elba recognized a kindred spirit. The two bonded over their shared experiences and the skepticism actors often face when crossing into music.
Their first official collaboration came with “Courteney Cox” in 2021 — a catchy tribute to the “Friends” star that even featured Cox herself in the music video, spitting bars at the end. Both artists brought their filmmaking backgrounds to the project, shooting creative visuals on iPhones during lockdown and editing the video themselves.
“The speed at which my music exploded was insane,” Price told us in our winter 2025 issue. “It was the opposite of my acting career, which was a slow climb. Social media just works differently.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source relevantmagazine.com ’
