There’s a bit of a squabble going on in the rap world at the moment, a tiny little tiff. It’s between two pretty big names in hip-hop - your mate Drake and your buddy Pusha T, who has a new album out at the moment.
They are both extremely rich adults, and should be above this sort of carry-on, but as it happens, they’re not, so it continues to trundle on with no end in sight.
And seeing as it’s all that anyone seems to be banging on about at the moment, it’s probably a good idea to get up to speed on the nub of it, lest you want to look like a right prize plum at the water cooler in the morning.
As such, we thought we’d detail the whole sorry affair, from the very beginning, in an easily-digestible way, so that you’ll be up-to-date next time one of your work colleagues try to catch you out on the subject. That’ll teach ‘em!
Let’s start at the beginning:
Drake and Pusha T are both born
Drake in October 1986, and Pusha T in May 1977. Probs best to fast-forward a bit now, because nothing really happens for quite a few years - just really wanted to follow through on my promise that we’d start at the beginning, is all.
Pusha T had a go at Lil Wayne because *sigh* he wore the same brand of clothing as him
Back in 2006, Pusha T and his brother No Malice were in a rap duo called Clipse, who were rather fond of wearing the clothing brand BAPE. Then - shock-horror - Lil Wayne appeared on the front cover of Vibe wearing BAPE too! Uh oh!
So Clipse released this:
Which contained the diss: “Wanna know the time? Better clock us / N***as bite the style from the shoes to the watches.”
Wayne retailiated in a subsequent interview, saying some naughty sweary things about Clipse and Pharrell, and that was supposedly that. Night night, all put to bed.
But then:
Pusha T releases a track dissing Drake
In 2011, P dropped ‘Don’t Fuck with Me’ which used the same Jai Paul-sampling beat as Drake’s ‘Dreams Money Can Buy’, spouting stuff like “Rappers on their sophomores / Actin’ like they boss lords / Fame such a funny thing for sure / When n***as start believing all them encores.” Drake had released Take Care - his second album - that year.
But why Drake? Why poor old Drakey Boy? Well, because he’d joined Young money Entertainment - Lil Wayne’s record label.
Then Pusha goes and releases another one
Pusha T adds insult to injury by rapping “Contract all fucked up / I guess that means you all fucked up / You signed to one n***a that signed to another n***a / That’s signed to three n***as / Now that’s bad luck” on ‘Exodus 23:1’.
He’s talking about Young Money being owned by Cash Money Records, there, positing that Drake’s contract is somehow less legit as a result. Nope, no idea either.
Finally, Drake replies
On his track ‘Tuscan Leather’, Drake raps “I’m just as famous as my mentor / But that’s still the boss, don’t get sent for / Get hype on tracks and jump in front of a bullet you wasn’t meant for,” and “Bench players talkin’ like starters, I hate it.” That’s all about Pusha, that is. Harsh words!
Three years later Pusha’s back on the warpath
With this little ditty:
In which he says “It’s too far gone when the realest ain’t real / I walk amongst the clouds so your ceilings ain’t real / These n***as Call of Duty ‘cause their killings ain’t real / With a questionable pen so the feelin’ ain’t real.”
You see, much like Meek Mill did, Pusha T is suggesting that Drake uses a ghostwriter for a lot of his music - it’s getting personal now. Knickers are getting very twisted. It’s Knicker City, everyone.
Drake’s back at it again
Revenge time: in 2017, Drizzy only went and bloody said this:
“But really it’s you with all the drug dealer stories / That’s gotta stop, though / You made a couple chops and now you think you Chapo… You middle-man in this shit, boy you was never them guys / I can tell, ’cause I look most of you dead in your eyes / And you’ll be tryna sell that story for the rest of your lives.”
On his track ‘Two Birds, One Stone’, he hit out at Pusha T for acting the big man and going on about dealing drugs all the time, the legend. Drake wasn’t having any of that.
And then it kicked up a gear - the Gates of Hell truly opened
Pusha T released his latest album, Daytona, and rammed in a big cuss aimed squarely at Drake, ten years his junior, in ‘Infrared’:
He goes “The lyric pennin’ equal the Trumps winnin’ / The bigger question is how the Russians did it / It was written like Nas but it came from Quentin,” referring to Quentin Miller, Drake’s alleged ghostwriter, and comparing the whole debacle to Trump dishonestly gaining power. KNICKERS SET TO OVERDRIVE!!!
So Drake responds pretty darn quick, it must be said
Here, look:
First up he talks about when he rather foolishly bought a $200 microphone supposedly signed by Pusha T, back when he was a fan: “I had a microphone of yours but then the signature faded / I think that pretty much resembles what has been happening lately.”
Then he hits out at Kanye West, who produced Pusha’s album, by referencing two of his songs, ‘Father Stretch My Hands’ and ‘30 Hours’:
“What do you really think of the n***a that’s making your beats? / I’ve done things for him I thought he never would need / Father had to stretch his hands out and get it from me / I pop style for 30 hours, then let him repeat.”
He then sent Pusha T’s label G.O.O.D Music an invoice for the extra publicity (actually funny, this):
Oh but Pusha is back, mate, with a right old custard pie
He released the freestyle ‘The Story of Adidon’, in reference to the name of Drake’s supposed secret child, delivering a final fisherman’s knot in Drake’s bloomers:
Saying “Adonis is your son / And he deserves more than an Adidas press run, that’s real / Love that baby, respect that girl / Forget she’s a pornstar, let her be your world.”
He also uses what appears to be pretty damning artwork of Drake wearing blackface, promising that he didn’t alter the image and that it’s a real photo.
Drake responds to the dodgy image
Like so:
So Pusha hits back (like a tennis match, this is)
On an appearance on radio station Los Angeles’ Real 92.3, he responded to Drake’s statement thusly:
“That doesn’t change my view at all… You are silent on all black issues, Drake…. You don’t stand for nothing, you don’t say nothing about nothing.
“You have all the platform in the world. You were so passionate back then? No you weren’t. That’s number one. That’s what I know.”
Then, all is quiet
It looks like it’s all been sorted. Pusha T did an interview with Vanity Fair, saying:
“I mean, you know. These conversations have been had and, to my knowledge, it’s all over. It’s all over with.
“I mean, listen: I’m ready to be back to the music for real. Just feeding my base, that’s it. That’s the most important thing to me at all times.”
Also, the Rap-A-Lot Records CEO, J. Prince (a name that holds a lot of sway in the rap world), told Ebro In The Morning that Kanye contacted him to tell Drake to end the beef. He said:
“This was something Kanye didn’t want. He let me know, ‘I’m a family man. I don’t want this.’ […] With me analyzing the whole pie, I’m like, ‘Hey, why say these things that are about to be said and destroy this man’s livelihood?’ We not about that.”
“I can’t speak for the Lil Wayne song, but I do know Drake was moving forward by himself. He was ready to move forward. You know, when something like that is said about you, your emotions and feelings is involved. I explained to [Drake] it ain’t about emotions and his feelings. [Push] has crossed the line where music is concerned. I called it a pig-pen mentality. You know what I mean? We could get in that pit and wallow and slop with him, or we could move on. We chose to move on.”
And here we are
We’re up to date, guys - everything’s up in the air at the time of writing these very words. It looks like it’s over, but that’s never really the case, is it? So what will happen next? A wedgie? Will one of them wedgie the other? Will Pusha T hide in Drake’s airing cupboard, and then when he goes to hang his socks up, jump out and give him a gigantic wedgie that rips his boxers in two? Will Drake paint himself to look like one of the trees in Pusha T’s garden, and then when he’s out there practicing his diablo, pull him into the bushes and yank his pants up the back of his arse so aggressively that he gets blood on his jeans?
WHEN WILL THE WEDGIES START? I REQUIRE THE WEDGIES COMMENCE IMMEDIATELY.
(Image: Getty)
