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Drake Opens Up About Kanye West Beef, Pusha T Diss

blame it on Shake October 13, 2018

Since signing with the Lakers, LeBron James has unveiled a multitude of media ventures. One of those, is a show on HBO called The Shop. Having chopped it up with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Victor Oladipo, Ben Simmons, and Mo Bamba, the king invited Drake to the shop to discuss a variety of topics—from fatherhood to the process of retiring at the right time.

The most memorable moments, though, came towards the end, when Drizzy opened up about his issues with Kanye West and Pusha T.

Holding nothing back, Drake takes a deep dive into his interactions with Kanye; all of which paint the picture of a (MAGA hat wearing) snake with foul intentions. Just peep the run down—which starts with the two connecting before the release of their respective projects.

“I ended up linking with Ye, and he sold me on this whole speech of like, ‘I’m in a great place, I’m making money, and I’m a father, and I wanna be Quincy Jones and help you, but in order to do that, you’ve gotta be transparent with me. And you gotta play me your music, and you gotta tell me when you’re dropping,” Drake starts. “And so I was in the studio, guess we all kind of felt a genuine vibe from it. So I play him my music, and I told him when I was dropping.”

While out in Wyoming, Drake not only says Kanye told him “Lift Yourself” could be his, but that he also played him “March 14,” the Scorpion closer that finds Drizzy going in depth about the existence of his child, Adonis, and the issues with his baby’s mother. You know, all the stuff Pusha T rapped about on “The Story of Adidon.”

“I spent all my time, pretty much working on his stuff,” Drake says. “And again, I left Wyoming with ‘Lift Yourself’ and a pat on the back. Alright, I’ll try to make the most of this and hopefully he sends some more things through. By the way, I’m in Wyoming, I play him ‘March 14’ I send him a picture of my son. I tell him I’m having trouble with my son’s mother. We had a conversation.”

Days later, Kanye reveals his G.O.O.D. Music album rollout (which changes from the “October, November” release he told Drake in person to arriving ahead of the release of Scorpion) and released “Lift Yourself” by himself.

“I wake up, and all these dates are out—all around June 15. Then the next two days, I wake up to this text from him, passive like, ‘Yo, I love you brother,'” Drake says. “‘Lift Yourself’ comes out with him just talking nonsense. ‘Oh this guy’s trolling me.’ This was a manipulative, ‘I wanna break you’ thing. So I said alright. I’m gonna go back to distancing myself again. I know what this is. Then, the first album drops (Pusha T’s Daytona). And of course there’s a diss song towards me that you produced, that’s talking about writing? I was just there with you, as friends, helping you. And now you’re dissing me. So I’m like, man, this is dark.”

You know what happens next. “Infrared” is the talk of the internet, before Drake response with “Duppy” freestyle.

“People love to say, like rap purists and people who just love confrontation, they love to say, ‘There’s no rules in this shit.’ But there are fucking rules in this shit,” Drake exclaimed. “And I’m gonna tell you something, I knew something was gonna come up about my kid. They had to add the deadbeat thing to make it more appealing, which is fine. I understand that. Even that, I was like, OK. The mom and dad thing, whatever. You don’t even know my family. But I’ma tell you, wishing death on my friend that has MS? I study rap battles for a living. Now when you mention defenseless people who are sick in the hospital, that passed away, that really sent me to a place where I just believed then, and believe now, that there’s just a price that you have to pay for that. It’s over. You’re gonna get… someone’s gonna fucking punch you in the fucking face. The shit’s done, the event’s over. I wanted to do other things. I didn’t wanna further your reputation or your career by rapping back at you and having this exchange. And that was it for me.”

Drake speaks on his response to “The Story Of Adidon” and breaks down why he decided against releasing it.

“I got home and I just listened back to it, and I was like, ‘man, this is not something I ever want to be remembered for. This is not even a place that I necessarily want to go,'” he says. “And to all the people who enjoy that, I tip my hat to you. By the way, hell of a chess move. The song, I thought it was trash. But the chess move was genius. Back against the wall. I either go all the way filthy or I fall back and I have this sort of chink in my armor for the rest of time to a rap purist. Which is fine, I can live with that. I would much rather live with that than the things that I was about to… the research I did, the things that I was gonna say, and the places that I was gonna go. Not only for him, but the other guy too.”

“Now I feel pure, I feel good,” Drake says while wrapping up. “And you know what I did? I took that energy and I put it into me, not you, you don’t get that from me.” Which, instead, Drake says he went on to record “In My Feelings,” “Nonstop,” “Mob Ties” and “8 Out of 10” for Scorpion.