There are two words to describe the overall feeling of Drake’s new album, Nothing Was The Same — passive aggressive.
Despite the perception of Drake’s new album as this “sad” and “emotional” body of work, Nothing Was The Same isn’t as “sad” as listeners and some critics are making it out to be. In fact, Drake does a lot of humble bragging and flexes his inner showmanship on records like “Tuscan Leather,” “Worst Behavior,” “The Language,” “All Me,” “Pound Cake,” among a few other tracks.
Passive aggressive is Drake, and Drake is passive aggressive. For instance, it’s still not clear what Drake’s true feelings are about Kendrick Lamar’s “Control” verse. In an interview with Billboard, Drake stated that he “didn’t have anything to say about it.” But in a recent interview with Angie Martinez, Drake seemed a little aggravated by Kendrick Lamar’s passive aggressive verse and said some of the words K.Dot used were “harsh” and he didn’t really think he could “f*ck with the guy after that.”
Oddly enough, over the past few years, Drake has been enthralled in a few hip-hop “beefs” that could be classified as passive aggressive conflicts. GlobalGrind decided to lay out the complete history of Drake’s passive aggressive behavior in passive aggressive hip-hop “beefs.”
So here it goes, if you despise passive aggressive behavior, pray for patience, because this is an exhausting history of Drake’s passive aggressive behavior with passive aggressive rappers in passive aggressive hip-hop beefs.
1. Drake Vs. Common
The History:
It all started when Chicago rapper Common released his The Dreamer/The Believer track “Sweet.” On the song, Common made a subliminal diss which many people thought was aimed at Drake, but had no proof.
“Singing all around me man, la la la/You ain’t motherf*cking Frank Sinatra.”
During a concert in Las Vegas, Drake responded to the perceived diss, saying:
“I might sing, but I ain’t no bitch. If Common got something to say, say it to my face.”
A few days later, Common confirmed he was dissing Drake on “Sweet.” Drake responded to Common on Rick Ross’ “Stay Schemin’,” by rapping:
“It’s feeling like rap changed, it was a time it was rugged/Back when if a n*gga reached it was for the weapon, nowadays n*ggas reach just to sell their record.”
Common fired back with his “Stay Schemin (Remix)” diss, and the internet damn near blew up. Initially, there was speculation about who Common was dissing, but in the outro of the song, Common made it very clear he was dissing Drake.
“Soft nigga. Make no mistake, I’m talking to Drake
It’s the remix. Rick Ross, Common, and that ho-ass n*gga
No, man-to-man, don’t hide behind them other n*ggas
Nah, this man-to-man. You can’t run behind them man
This is some real man shit right here.”
In an interview with Complex, Drake revealed his true feelings about his “beef” with Common.
“Obviously, the whole tension with that whole camp has been brewing for a long time, and that was the first time someone had called me out personally. I reacted in a very poised way. First of all, I made sure it would run in the club because that’s more painful than anything. As opposed to just being on a blog, I wanted to be on a record that you would have to stand around and hear every night for a few months. That was my whole strategy going into that. Instead of sounding hurt and malicious, I wanted to sound fun, get my shit off. Like I said, if it happens again, not that I want it, not that I welcome it, but I’m ready. I really enjoy writing bars, man. I’m not nervous about anybody saying anything to me.”
On the Canada Dry Line:
“The Canada Dry line? That was epic. I liked it. It wasn’t a good line necessarily, but it was funny.”
The diss was kind of harsh, but in true passive aggressive fashion, both Common and Drake down played the scathing diss, and announced they patched it up after being spotted dapping each other up at a NBA game.
2. Drake Vs. Chris Brown
The History:
Unfortunately, the root of this beef surrounded Bajan pop star Rihanna. When the news broke that Drake and Chris Brown and their collective teams had an all out bottle throwing brawl at NYC’s WIP nightclub, the world was pretty shocked.
We’ve still never gotten the “real” story, but reports circulated that Drake sent a bottle to Chris Brown’s table with a note attached to it that allegedly read “I’m f*cking the love of your life.”
All hell broke loose, bottles were thrown, innocent bystanders were hurt, Chris Brown’s bodyguard Big Pat had to receive dozens of stitches, and both the superstars were slapped with lawsuits from the nightclub and the victims.
During an interview with Elliott Wilson, Drake stirred the pot a little when he stated, “At one point in life, the woman that he loves fell into my lap.”
Drake went on to say:
“Don’t ask me sh*t about that man when I come up there. Leave that man alone. Stop preying on his insecurities. His insecurities are the fact that I make better music than him. I’m more poppin’ than him.”
Chris Brown fired back at Drake on his “Don’t Like” Freestyle, where he rapped:
“A f*ck n*gga, that’s the sh*t I don’t like / They throwin’ bottles, I’m throwin’ models, ’cause I give a b*tch long pipe / Doin’ shows on the soccer field, that’s dome, right? / I be singin’, he be singin’, so it’s on sight / But hold up, I ain’t give a n*gga no green light / This head up, my bread up, one-on-one, what, you scared, bruh? / Matter of fact, take care, bruh / You a p*ssy n*gga / My n*gga Tunechi, yeah that n*gga nice / Shout out to Nicki, man, that a** tight / Them eyebrows? Man, them sh*ts is yikes / OVO, you overdose, screamin’ Y.O.L.O. though, I live twice!”
Drake on Chris Brown’s rapping:
“I don’t want to hear that man rap. Nobody wants to hear me rap against him. I really do this sh*t. Let him put out that, whatever, ‘Project X’ or whatever he’s working on and I’m going to put out that real sh*t for the people.”
With all that said, Drake did leave the possibility of a reconciliation with Chris in the future:
“We have an issue and it’s either gonna drag out or maybe in ten years we’ll laugh about it over drinks. Just let us solve that sh*t.”
During an interview with GQ, Drake talked more about his beef with Chris Brown:
“I don’t want my name to be synonymous with that guy’s name. I really don’t. I wish we could sit down, just like you and me are right now, and talk it out man-to-man. But that’s not going to happen. I’m not confrontational, but if someone challenges, I’m not going to back down. Two rappers fighting over the woman. He’s not even a rapper, but still, it’s the last way you want your name out there. It distracts from the music. But he’s made me the enemy, and that’s the way it’s gonna stay, I guess.”
After a year of steering clear of one another, it was reported that Drake and Chris Brown made up during the 2013 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas this past weekend.
3. Drake Vs. Pusha T
The History:
Drake’s always been a Pusha T fan since the Virginia rapper was in The Clipse with his brother No Malice (formerly Malice). So it came as a surprise when Pusha dragged Drake into his long-standing beef with Lil Wayne on “Exodus 23:1.” Pusha dissed Lil Wayne, Birdman, and what many people believed was a diss towards Drake as well.
Pusha rapped:
“Contract all f*cked up/ I guess that means you all fucked up/ You signed to one n*gga that signed to another n*gga/ That’s signed to three n*ggas, now that’s bad luck.”
Shortly after the song dropped, Drake stopped by Hot 97’s Funkmaster Flex show, where he spoke about the perceived diss.
“I listened to it and I just couldn’t pick it out. I couldn’t pick out where I was supposed to be offended. Everyone was just like, ‘Oh you got dissed in this song by Pusha T.’ First of all, I’ve never really had any interaction with Pusha T so for him to diss me would be purely issues that he’s having within himself…We’ve met but we’ve been just always cordial with each other. I’m a fan of The Clipse. I say it in interviews. So I’ve never really had any issues with him. But it’s a frustrating time for a lot of people right now, I get it. So if it was directed at me, just make it a little more direct next time. I’m up for whatever man. I didn’t take offense to it though.”
But during a stop in Washington, D.C. on his “Club Paradise” tour, Drake changed his tune and fired back at Pusha:
“If you was doin’ 16s when I was 16 and your sh*t still flopped and you switched teams don’t talk to me my n*gga.”
At Made In America in 2012, the G.O.O.D Music family ran into technical difficulties with the sound system while bringing out 2 Chainz for their smash single “Mercy.” The next day, Drake brought out 2 Chainz and threw a jab at G.O.O.D Music by stating:
“That’s how you bring out 2 Chainz.”
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Pusha responded to Drake’s apparent jab.
“At the end of the day — I guess just speaking on our behalf — we don’t give a f*ck what Drake says. Like, we don’t care. In regards to us, that sh*t doesn’t matter. Like, if you want to talk about the G.O.O.D. Music today and 2 Chainz, we had a mishap, because we have a record that is performed by four different people every night of the week and everybody has different edits of it. Ye’s verse — where the beat switches up and it’s really chant-y — gets edited out of a lot of people’s sets. Just to keep the momentum of the song going and just keeping the show clean and concise. None of us was told, but Chainz wasn’t told that Ye wasn’t doing his portion of the record [at Made in America]. It was a mishap, man! I mean, f*ck! People have mishaps. But I mean, Chainz is so f*ckin’ charismatic, he just walks out. I personally would’ve just rapped his f*ckin’ verse, because I heard it, but I didn’t want to overstep my boundaries because fans didn’t know he was there. So, you know, whatever. We talked about it in the back. Chainz wasn’t bitter about it. He was just like, “I could’ve knocked it out. It could’ve been crazier had I been on time with it or had I known we were doing that edit.” All of this sh*t is off the cuff, and all of us is all over the country, and we’re just coming together to do the Made in America festival. It was a thing of paying homage to this new festival. It was a great experience, it was a great look, being a part of something that Ye obviously wanted us to be a part of. It wasn’t a big production thing where we practiced this sh*t. Even I came out off-cue! I should’ve laid back a little bit, but we were rocking to it. That’s what the f*ck we do — we don’t give a f*ck. So, if that was the way you should’ve brought 2 Chainz out [laughs], then I’m glad Drake got to do it, and I’m glad that Chainz got the look, and I’m sure people were happy. Other than the shot thing, we don’t give a f*ck. We definitely ain’t thinking about no shots.”
During a radio interview, Drake insisted the “beef” between him and Pusha T was hyped by the media.
“Of course they want me and so-and-so to beef because it would sound good. It would sound good, we can both rap, but you know, I don’t have a problem with him. I really don’t. Yeah, I don’t think he has a problem [with me]. I’ve seen him multiple times. Sometimes we let people make problems for us — it’s not on that level.”
During an interview with Atlanta’s Hot 107.9, Pusha surprisingly put Drake on his Top 5 MCs of the moment list.
“If I had to just name out five right now, right now, who’s just doing they thing, I would say myself. I feel like I get busy. I feel like I do it in the spirit of hip-hop, I feel like I take risks — I feel like Kanye West is definitely on that top ten, that top five because if you look at the top ten, four people on that top ten were influenced by what Ye got, including myself, Chainz, Sean and Ye himself. So I think you got to put him in there. I think you got to put Kendrick in there. I think he’s like, he’s killing the game. I think you have to. I think you got to put Drake in there as well. You know what I’m saying? He’s rapping. I think you got to put Ross in there as well just because his presence in the clubs, so on and so forth is heavy and his movement with his guys, Meek, he ushered them out, Wale, and stuff like that. I feel like that’s five strong in different categories and you can even look at everybody for who they are and be like, ‘Okay, I can see why he’s thinking that.'”
4. Drake Vs. DMX
The History:
For some reason, DMX hates Drake’s singing. During an interview at Power 105’s Breakfast Club, the “X Gon Give It To Ya” rapper let it be known that he doesn’t like the Canadian rapper.
“I don’t like anything about Drake. I don’t like his fucking voice. I don’t like what he talks about. I don’t like his face. I don’t like the way he walks. Nothing. I don’t like his haircut. I wish it was like maybe seven years ago or maybe like 10 years ago where you know, catch him in the elevator, beat him up.”
When DMX got wind of Drake’s polarizing Aaliyah collaboration, he rambled on, calling Drake a “piece of sh*t.”
“He’s a f*ckin’ piece of sh*t. Like, muthaf*cka you ain’t even know this woman. You didn’t even know her. You were in middle school. Before, I just spoke on what I didn’t like about him. I didn’t know him so I couldn’t say ‘I didn’t like him. I didn’t like this.’ But now it’s like, ‘you f*ckin piece of sh*t. You piece of sh*t. Who the f*ck is you to f*ckin write…to….to…I mean. Allow her music to live on and not include people she’s always worked with? Not include her recipe?’ That’s like sayin’, ‘you know what? I’ma make KFC but I’m not using the colonel’s recipe!’ That ain’t KFC, nigga! That’s YOUR FC. Your f*ckin chicken. (laughs) That’s some bullsh*t and it ain’t the same sh*t.”
During an interview with DJ WhooKid, DMX changed his tune:
“I have no… I mean, the nigga ain’t do nothing to me. There ain’t no reason, son. I don’t want to beat him up. It ain’t that serious.”
Thankfully, Drake took the passive approach and never responded to any of DMX’s disses.
5. Drake Vs. Vanessa Bryant
The History:
In the wake of the nasty divorce proceedings of NBA baller Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa Bryant, Drake rapped on Rick Ross’ “Stay Schemin:”
“Kobe ‘bout to lose a hundred fifty M’s / Kobe my n*gga I hate it had to be him / B*tch you wasn’t with me shooting in the gym / B*tch you wasn’t with me shooting in the gym.”
Vanessa Bryant fired back at Drake in a statement that read:
“I love when immature kids quote a rapper that has never been friends with Kobe and knows nothing about our relationship. Just shows how gullible they are. I don’t need to be in the gym. I’m raising our daughters, signing checks and taking care of everything else that pertains to our home life. But thanks for your concern over an immature quote.
I really wish people would stop THINK and then realize that they are being sucked into someone’s clear intention to monetize and gain attention off of our family’s heartache. This is real life. I hold down our home life so my husband can focus on his career. It’s a partnership.”
Drake apologized to Vanessa and Kobe via a text forwarded from his manager.
6. Drake Vs. Ludacris
The History:
It all started after Ludacris released his track “My Chick Bad.” Luda switched up his flow for the Nicki Minaj featured track, and Drake alluded that “rappers” are killing Big Sean’s “Supa Dupa” flow or #Hashtag rap.
“Well, that flow has been killed by so many rappers. And, I never want to use that flow again in life. [Laughs] I wanted to take if off my album, because I was like, ‘I shut ’em down. Onyx.’ I hate the fact that that rhyme is still in there. To be honest, that flow, you can trace it back to like…I trace it back to Big Sean (artist on Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music). That’s the first guy I heard utilize that flow throughout the duration of a verse. I’ll give him that credit. I think Kanye got it from him. Me and Wayne found a dope way to do it. I don’t want to sound cocky, but the best way its been used was on “Forever.” Those lines just all individually make so much sense. They’re all punchlines. Then a bunch of rappers started doing it and using the most terrible references in the world. I don’t want to offend somebody…I hate that rappers picked that flow up. I wish they had left that for people that know how to use it. [They go like] “It’s a parade! MACY’S!”
Big Sean co-signed Drake’s sentiments and called out Ludacris for “stealing” their flow:
“With the super duper flow, I created that one word rhyme style,” Big Sean said in an interview. “Drake really made it more popular, but Drake gave me the credit and was like, ‘I really got that from Big Sean.’ I think some artists just did it so wack man. Every time I say names I get in trouble and it’s like I’m dissing, but some people used it wack. If he said Ludacris used it wack, hey. Don’t get it wrong I’m not trying to dis Ludacris or nothing. He’s a great MC. But even though that style got so overused, there was a lot of people who did it great and there was a lot of people who didn’t do it so great. People always ask me was you mad that people took that style from you. I’m like, ‘Nah, that went and shows me how far I can go as an artist.’ I feel like I changed hip-hop. I haven’t even dropped an album yet. So that goes to show me how powerful my mind is.'”
Ludacris fired back at Drizzy and Sean with his diss track “Bada Boom:”
“Big Bada boom, Luda’s in this bitch
Pussy niggas clear the room
I came through the door, I said it before
I’m the truth in this booth and you niggas all hoes
Counterfeit rappers say I’m stealing their flows
But I can’t steal what you never made up bitch
Y’all some duplicate rap cloning niggas
I manufacture you hoes — put on your makeup, bitch………
Do your research before you make a claim so bogus
That’s disrespecting pioneers in the game
Fuck the fame but go ahead and get ya 5 minutes
Then you front line cadets can report to your lieutenants (sir, yes sir)
See I’m ya past, I’m ya future and ya present
So watch ya fucking mouth when you speak about a legend
16 times platinum, 6 number 1 peaks
So I can give a fuck what you sold in ya first week
You’s weak, softer than the Pillsbury dough boy
Don’t make me expose the truth — you’s a ho, boy
Don’t make me get on that “Stomp” shit and get back at it
You rappers ain’t even in my fucking tax bracket.”
Drake responded to Ludacris’ diss record, stating:
“That’s a case of someone trying to use my marketing money to get things going again for themselves. That didn’t affect my day, my month, my year. I didn’t take any of that seriously.”
7. Drake Vs. Kendrick Lamar
The History:
In August 2013, Big Sean released a bonus track that didn’t make the final cut of his sophomore album Hall Of Fame. The song, titled “Control,” featured Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar and the elusive Jay Electronica.
The gritty 8-minute track featured a polarizing verse by the GKMC rapper who called out his fellow hip-hop colleagues, challenging them to step their lyrical game up.
Kendrick rapped:
“I heard the barbershops be in great debates all the time
Bout who’s the best MC? Kendrick, Jigga and Nas
Eminem, Andre 3000, the rest of y’all
New niggas just new niggas, don’t get involved
And I ain’t rocking no more designer shit
White T’s and Nike Cortez, this red Corvettes anonymous
I’m usually homeboys with the same niggas I’m rhymin’ with
But this is hip-hop and them niggas should know what time it is
And that goes for Jermaine Cole, Big KRIT, Wale
Pusha T, Meek Mills, A$AP Rocky, Drake
Big Sean, Jay Electron’, Tyler, Mac Miller
I got love for you all but I’m tryna murder you niggas
Trying to make sure your core fans never heard of you niggas
They don’t wanna hear not one more noun or verb from you niggas”
For weeks, most of the rappers name checked on the controversial song stayed quiet, but while promoting his new album, Drake began to speak about the “diss.”
During an interview with Billboard Magazine, Drake was dismissive of Kendrick’s verse:
“I didn’t really have anything to say about it. It just sounded like an ambitious thought to me. That’s all it was. I know good and well that Kendrick’s not murdering me, at all, in any platform. So when that day presents itself, I guess we can revisit the topic.”
During his #CRWN interview with Elliott Wilson, Drake said:
“[Kendrick] is giving people moments. But are you listening to it now, at this point in time? Okay… It was real cool for a couple weeks. If I asked you, for example, how does that verse start? Mind you, it’ll go on– Complex and Rap Radar will give it like, verse of the millennium and all that shit or whatever. I know that verse had no malice behind it, because I saw him five days later at the VMAs and it was all love. He didn’t come on there in some wild ‘I’m in New York, fuck everybody, don’t look at me’. It was one of those things, I almost wished he had come in there on that shit, because I kind of lost a little respect for the sentiment of the verse. If it’s ‘really fuck everybody’ then it needs to be ‘fuck everybody’. It can’t be halfway for the sake of the people.
But during an interview with Angie Martinez on Hot 97, Drake seemed to change his tune on the “Control” verse.
“It just wasn’t real to me. I saw him after that [diss] and it was just like love, so it’s like was that [diss] real or was that for the people? Those were harsh words, you can’t just say that and see me like ‘yeah man what’s up’ pretending like nothing ever happened. That’s not real. To me, that’s not like the nature of battling. There’s passion behind it. There’s anger behind it. I personally enjoy making, like, great music and bodies of work over, like, being the talk of Twitter for, like, five days … I don’t know if it was worth it. Because there’s a lot of people that were mentioned that I feel like can’t really go back and f*ck with that guy after that.”
On Drake’s Nothing Was The Same track “The Language,” the Toronto rapper spits what’s perceived to be a jab back at Kendrick:
“F*ck any n*gga that’s talkin’ that sh*t just to get a reaction/ F*ck going platinum, I looked at my wrist and it’s already platinum.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Billboard, Hot 97, Hot Atlanta 107.9, DJ WhooKid, Power 105, Rolling Stone
