Rick Ross Delivers Fiery Response To Drake On “Champagne Moments”: A Lyrical Breakdown

Rick Ross officially entered the building shortly after Drake dropped a bomb on the rap game. Once he aligned himself with Future and Metro Boomin — and unfollowed Drake on Instagram — we began witnessing hip-hop’s most commercially viable stars begin to bicker on wax and social media. In all fairness, everyone else is basically riding on Kendrick Lamar’s back, especially since the actual battle for the throne is between Dot and Drake. However, Rozay, surprisingly, chose to abandon his long-time collaborator for reasons that many didn’t necessarily understand immediately. The two have publicly praised each other on a number of occasions, collaborated on numerous hit records, and have developed one of the strongest rapports among collaborators in hip-hop.

Following the release of “Push Ups,” where Drake emptied the clip on everyone, Rick Ross was among the first to step up. In fact, he’s the first to officially release a diss track between himself and Drake, considering “Push Ups” remains a “leak.” He dropped “Champagne Moments” followed by a string of tyrannic social media posts trolling Drake. He referred to Drake as a “White Boy,” a sentiment that he reiterated on the cover art of the single that includes the yearbook photo of a random white man; questioning Drake’s ethnic make-up as a bi-racial Canadian, which Drake would later describe to his mother as racist.

Perhaps not as scathing as “Push Ups (Drop & Give Me 50),” Rick Ross’ latest song serves as a reminder of his formidability when it comes to going bar-for-bar. One might be able to argue that he isn’t necessarily as lyrically gifted as Drake nor as rich but his track record shouldn’t be slept on. We’ve seen him go toe-to-toe with 50 Cent and emerge relatively unscathed. Without further adieu, let’s jump into some of the lyrics from “Champagne Moments” below.

Ghostwriters & Wise Budgeting

It seemed inevitable that ghostwriters would be brought up in this battle. Considering that both Lil Yachty and Cash Cobain’s reference tracks for Drake, “Jumbotron Sh*t Poppin” and “Calling For You,” respectively,” recently leaked online, it remains a relevant topic and one that should certainly be mentioned during the ongoing rap battle. Within a few bars, Rick Ross raps, “Ghostwriters, they get to floss what you could’ve had/ Record label takin’ a loss, are you in your bag?” In its simplest form, it appears that Rick Ross is suggesting Drake could’ve saved himself a few dollars had he written his bars himself but these bars extend further as Ross addresses the diss track directly. In the second verse, Ross doubles down, rapping, “Another n***a had to write your grooves.”

“Push Ups” — Returning Fire

In the past few years, Rick Ross has further emphasized the importance of independence and ownership in the music industry — a boss move. Though MMG created an era, Ross also helped the careers of Wale and Meek Mill lift off to great heights. “Record label takin’ a loss are you in your bag/ You a worker wantin’ to chart, don’t make me laugh,” Ross raps.

Drake certainly helped Rick Ross land a few hit records on the Billboard Hot 100 but here, the MMG boss pokes at Drizzy’s track record as a label boss vs. a signed artist. There’s no doubt that Drake, who reportedly signed a Lebron-sized deal a few years ago, has delivered plenty of hit records and brought a few artists along with him to the Billboard charts. However, here, Ross is making it clear that all the Billboard talk means little when the artists who signed to OVO have failed to reach similar feats in their careers.

Money Talk

It seemed inevitable that this whole beef would somehow resort to money and who has more than the next person. Although the reality is that this is lyrical warfare that has nothing to do with monetary gain (hence why “Push Ups” didn’t land on DSPs), Rozay does get a bit spicy yet some have argued a bit self-aware, too. “Livin’ fine, I’m gettin’ high as your shit decline” could be a reference to that moment when a credit card declined during Drake’s Instagram stream, though it was clarified that it wasn’t actually Drizzy’s.

Then, he raps, “Got more money than you, fuck you want me to say?/ Fifty mill’ for the crib, where you want me to stay?” This particular bar caused a stir since many feel as though Drake is the wealthier of the two, specifically due to the aforementioned contract. However, Rory & Mal co-host Demaris Giscombe shared a solid analysis of the bar, stating that there was an inflection in Ross voice when he rapped “Got more money than you” in an attempt to mimic Drake. Thus, his response of “F*ck you want me to say?” is more of a Kanye shrug to Drake’s braggadocio.

Authenticity Questioned

LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 26: (L-R) Rick Ross, Drake, and Lil Wayne perform at the 2011 BET Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on June 26, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)

The entire premise of this diss track is intended to question Drake’s authenticity. In the first verse, he raps, “Who believes he movin’ keys in his Louis Vs?” which pushes back against Drizzy’s mob-centric bars as of late. However, Ross goes a step further when he suggests that Drake has basically used the more street-oriented rappers in hip-hop to gain some sort of credibility.

“N***as pussy, don’t want to push me, I’m like, ‘Really, would he?’/ Like his moves, but he never had to fight in school,” he continues in the second verse, a relatively light jab compared to what comes next. “Always ran, another n***a had to write your grooves/ Flow is copy-and-paste, Weezy gave you the juice/ Another white boy at the park wanna hang with the crew,” Ross raps. Though Drake might look at Ross as someone who may have used him to gain some sort of mainstream success, Ross further reiterates that he views Drake as a suburbanite who leeched onto those with actual backgrounds in the streets to further boost his career.

Plastic Surgery

Ross’s brief but effective response record to Drake certainly had all of the bars needed to address everything thrown in his direction. However, the majority of the scathing claims were made during the outro. Led by a snippet of Drake proclaiming Ross as his “favorite person to rap with on any song,” the Miami rapper further charges at Drake for being “white,” alleging that he got nose surgery in favor of more Eurocentric features. Moreover, Ross also resurfaced the claims that Drake had plastic surgery to have a six-pack. “Yeah, you had that surgery, that six-pack gone/ That’s why you wearin’ that funny shit at your show, you can’t hide it, n***a,” he says.

Women

Shortly after the release of WE DON’T TRUST YOU, which featured an appearance from Ross on “Everyday Hustle,” Ross unfollowed Drake, leading to speculation of their fall-out. However, it turned out that Drake subtly fired back at Ross by inviting his ex, Cristina Mackey, to his recent concert. “Let you DM my ho, but got b**ches you can’t,” Ross raps.

The Real Reason We Won’t Get YOLO

Again, the outro of “Champagne Moments” provides more insight into Rick Ross’ issues with Drake than anything else said on the record. The “Hustlin’” MC states that the reason Drake got hit with the unfollow is because the Canadian rapper allegedly sent a cease-and-desist to French Montana ahead of the release of Mac & Cheese 5 to prevent the release of “Splash Brothers.” The final version of the song features Rick Ross and Lil Wayne. “You sent the police, n***a, hatin’ on my dawg project. That wasn’t the same white boy that I seen, n***a, when we were makin’ them early records, n***a,” Ross says.

As the two continue to trade shots online, we’ll have to see how this plays out. Does it escalate or will the two make up? We’ll keep you posted on anymore developments surrounding the ongoing Drake vs. Rick Ross saga.

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