On Friday, Pop Smoke‘s legacy continued with the release of his posthumous debut album, Shoot For the Stars Aim For the Moon. At 19 tracks, the album was stacked with features from 50 Cent (who executive produced the LP), Future, Lil Baby, DaBaby, Roddy Ricch, and others.
Ahead of the release, there was also talks of a song with Young Thug, Gunna and Pusha T being included, but once the album dropped the song was no where to be seen. Why’s that? Well, according to Push, it was Drake that made the call to get the song pulled after hearing the shots (below).
“You know reality bites/ It’s chess not checkers/ Those empty threats only sound good on your records,” Push rapped on the unreleased record. “If the patois is not followed by blocka/ It’s like marked for death Screwface without the choppa/ Let em rush the stage when you made like Sinatra/ Only to hide the blade, flying back through LaGuardia/ I might even buy a home out in Mississauga.”
On Monday evening, Young Thug took to Instagram to insist and and his label mate Gunna were unaware of the diss and that he didn’t respect it.
“I don’t respect the Pusha T verse,” Thug said. “I don’t have nun to do with y’all beef and neither does Gunna, and if I knew it was about him I would’ve made changes on our behalf. This rapper shit so gay.”
Never one to bite his tongue (or glove his fingers? idk), Pusha wasted no time responding on Tuesday morning with a series of IG posts of his own.
“Dont feel bad, NOBODY knew what the verse was about,” Push replied. “The label heads that stopped it didn’t even know. They ONLY ASSUME because HE TOLD them! The same way HE TOLD about the Ross ‘Maybach 6’ verse. And if HE’LL TELL record executives about rap verses, God only knows what else HE’LL TELL! I don’t deal in police work, police rappers, or police n*ggas!”
“Young Thug, you were the last verses added to the song and that’s ONLY because I requested YOU,” Push continued. “And most importantly, just so we are clear… I WOULD NEVER look or need YOUR respect for what is it I bring to this rap game.”
Capping things off, Pusha then asked demanded his manager Steven Victor (who also managed Pop) to remove his verse from the song before it lands on the deluxe edition “to avoid any confusion that may take away from this amazing body of work.”
The verse in question can be heard here (or, you can use Google).
