Lil Yachty has said that he believes that neither Drake nor Kendrick Lamar “won or lost” their epic recent beef.
The Atlanta rapper himself was dragged into the feud when he was namechecked on Lamar’s ‘Euphoria’ (“Yachty can’t give you no swag neither, I don’t give a fuck ‘bout who you hang with”), which he has said he “didn’t really want anything to do with”.
“I knew that my name was mentioned before it came out,” he said on his podcast A Safe Place. “I didn’t hear the record but I had got word that I was mentioned. I wasn’t surprised.”
He went on to clarify that he has appreciated the work that has been put into the back-and-forth. “I got a ton of respect for both of these guys,” he said. “Honestly, it was a cool thing to watch. I learned so much. It was an honour and blessing to be able to experience it first hand.”
When asked to give his verdict on who came out on top, Yachty added: “Drake dropped great records. But also, let’s be fair: Drake was deemed a loser in this battle before it started because people don’t like him and haven’t. I don’t think people are gonna stop listening to Drake and Drake’s career is gonna flush.”
He then addressed Drake, adding: “I don’t feel like you won or lost.”
Lil Yachty speaking on the Kendrick Lamar & Drake rap battle
“Drake was deemed a loser in this battle before it started, cause people don’t like him and havent… I think he still sits on top of the throne… I told Drake I don’t feel like you won or lost”
via @ASafePlacePod pic.twitter.com/YYhM7Ir8vX
— SOUND (@itsavibe) May 17, 2024
“Rappers have lost, and then lost everything. But this hasn’t happened to Drake. He will still be in everybody’s Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year and he’ll still drop hits and control the summer. I think Kendrick made very smart moves and I don’t think Drake would disagree.”
The Kendrick-Drake beef has dominated the news over the last two months, being kindled by Kendrick’s contribution to ‘Like That’, from Metro Boomin and Future’s album ‘We Don’t Trust You’. On the track, Lamar responded to J. Cole and Drake’s ‘First Person Shooter’, where Cole called the trio “the big three”, by rapping: “Motherfuck the big three / N***, it’s just big me”.
That triggered a sequence of back-and-forth tracks: Drake’s ‘Push Ups’ and ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’, followed by Lamar’s ‘Euphoria’ and ‘6:16 In LA’. Drake hit back with ‘Family Matters’, which was swiftly followed by Lamar’s ‘Meet The Grahams’. The most recent contributions are Kendrick’s ‘Not Like Us’ and Drake’s ‘The Heart, Part 6’.
‘Not Like Us’ has since topped the Billboard Hot 100 and broken the Spotify record for the most streamed rap song in one day, while other rap luminaries have spoken out against the beef, including Vince Staples, who said the community “deserve better”, and Questlove, who called it “wrestling-match level mudslinging”.
In addition, a shooting outside Drake’s residence in Toronto on May 7 left a bodyguard seriously injured. There is no confirmation that the shooting was connected to the ongoing beef. While reporting on the story, a TV news anchor slipped up and called Drake a “raper” not a “rapper”.
A day after the shooting, a man was arrested for attempting to break into Drake’s Toronto mansion. That incident was the first of three trespassing attempts that week, which increased media presence at the home. Drake took to Instagram to ask whoever operated a news helicopter to stop flying at night so he could sleep.
