Riding high on two well-received singles and working on a new album, Drake takes a moment to fire shots at Kanye West and Pusha T, who’s known for taking frequent shots at the Toronto rapper in his rhymes. Until now, Drake has chosen not to respond with many speculating he’s too intimidated by Pusha’s lyrical skills to take him on.
In a snippet from “Infrared,” a single from Pusha’s upcoming project, the GOOD. Music president once again reignited Drake ghostwriting rumors, spitting, “It was written like Nas but it came from Quentin.”
In “Duppy Freestyle” Drake acknowledges receiving help with verses but questions Pusha for working with Kanye, rhyming: “So if you rebuke me for working with someone on a couple of Vs, what do you think of the nigga that makes your beats?” He later adds, “You not even top five as far as your label talent goes.”
Drake also takes a direct and personal shot at West, implying he held back Virgil Abloh’s career progress, spitting, “I could never have a Virgil in my circle and hold him back ’cause he makes me nervous.” On that note, we had heard from sources last year that Abloh was going to sign a deal with Adidas until West killed it.
As well, in an interview with Charlamagne in a May 2018, West said it’s better for his people to build their brands at distance. “When you get such a big corporation, you can build up your own brand next to it,” said West. “If you’re really close to me, it’s just going to be my brand. So people who want to build their own brand actually need to be as far away from me as possible to get out of the shadow.”
Drakes makes an age-old rap diss, stating that Pusha’s stories about drug dealing are second hand, stating, “So you don’t rap what you did, you just rap what you knew.”
Check out “Duppy Freestyle” below.
Pusha T: “Infrared”