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Drake Turns “The West Coast” Against K.Dot: The A.I. Snoop & ‘Pac Verses

Examining the primary controversy surrounding the song is imperative to understand the levels of disrespect. The first two verses on “Taylor Made Freestyle” use A.I. technology to replicate Tupac and Snoop Dogg’s voices, respectively. Drake raps from their “perspective” about how “they” want Kendrick Lamar to ether Drake on behalf of the West Coast. However, lines like “You supposed to be the boogeyman, go do what you do” question whether Kendrick is really like that, as Snoop and ‘Pac were more combatively upfront in their Death Row days. Aubrey also alludes to Snoop passing Kendrick the torch as the new frontrunner for the West Coast at a 2011 concert in L.A., emphasizing this historical pressure.

Aside from any ethical conversations about the use of A.I. here, the illusion is just a shiny taunt in this context and doesn’t truly emulate either Cali legend. Kendrick, on the other hand, previously used similar technology in ways many felt were more thematically appropriate and less disrespectful to their subject’s memories. These include talking to ‘Pac on TPAB‘s “Mortal Man” or using deepfakes of Will Smith, Nipsey Hussle, and more to draw parallels between their stories and his own in the music video for “The Heart Part 5.” But more importantly than all of this, the “Evil Ways” spitter questions the “Savior” creative’s L.A. ties by mentioning an apartment he bought in New York, and accuses Lamar of faking his aggressive funk and being “out of moves” in this “chess game” that the world is watching.

Kendrick Lamar Is A Swiftie Through & Through, Drizzy Declares

Drake also audits Kendrick Lamar’s artistic roots through Taylor Swift’s new album, which dropped the same day “Push Ups” hit DSPs and this “freestyle” hit @champagnepapi’s IG. Specifically, he claims that Kendrick hasn’t responded yet because he doesn’t want to interfere with Swift’s schedule, despite Drake mentioning her as his only competition on the song “Red Button” last year. “She Taylor-Made your schedule with Ant, you out of the loop / Hate all you corporate industry puppets, I’m not in the mood,” he raps, possibly referencing TDE’s Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, or Kendrick’s manager Anthony Saleh. It follows similar points from “Push Ups” and posits that Mr. Duckworth is prioritizing money over his craft.

On this point, though, someone tried to turn this argument against Drake: Kanye West. The now-independent Chicago artist raps the following on his “Like That” remix: “Where’s Lucian? Serve your master, n***a / You caught a little bag for your masters, didn’t ya? / Lifetime deal, I feel bad for n***as.” This paints the former Degrassi star as a puppet of UMG head Sir Lucian Grainge who, in 2022, confirmed that Drake entered a multi-faceted deal with Universal Music Group, per Variety. At the time, the publication reported that Drake signed a rumored “Lebron-sized deal” with UMG that could be worth upwards of $400 million.

Nonetheless, Ye’s retort remains muddy, speculative, and lacks actual information that would make these claims worthwhile in this feud. Another muddy point is how Ye and Drake argue over ghostwriting and credits when they’ve both written for each other. Regardless, Kendrick Lamar is now “independent” through pgLang. However, another separate report from Variety in 2020 indicated that Lamar signed a worldwide administration agreement with Universal Music Publishing.

“Taylor Made Freestyle” Anticipates Kendrick’s Next Shots

Drake throws shots at Kendrick Lamar on ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’

“Dot, I know you in that NY apartment / You struggling right now, I know it…”

“In the notepad doing lyrical gymnastics, my boy / You better have a motherf***in’ quintuple entendre on that sh*t” pic.twitter.com/NQWnAU7AGU

— NFR Podcast (@nfr_podcast) April 20, 2024

Finally, Drake addresses potential disses that Kendrick Lamar’s response track would include. The Tupac A.I. verse begs K.Dot to call out the “Canadian lightskin” for “liking young girls.” First, this attempts to disarm shots at his perceived racial ambiguity and insecurity. Later, it addresses the speculation surrounding his alleged proximity to Millie Bobby Brown, Bella Harris, and others when they were underage. It’s important to note that the only documented evidence of this type of alleged behavior was from a Denver concert in 2010. Per The Guardian, the then-23-year-old Drake brought a girl onstage, caressed her, kissed her on the lips, and was shocked when the girl told her that she was 17 — the age of consent in Denver — afterward. However, her actual age is still officially unconfirmed at press time.

In addition, Drake jokes that Kendrick Lamar needs a “quintuple entendre” on his response track, mocking how folks hype up his complex pen. This complements his claim that “Push Ups” only took him “an hour or two” to write and that his next diss track is when Kendrick will really lose. Overall, the Certified Lover Boy tries to downplay his rival’s artistic value and patience through consistent pressure. Some jabs could be interpreted as hypocritical, though, such as Drake questioning Kendrick’s street ties. Nevertheless, as of writing this article, there are only rumors of whether or not K.Dot will eventually respond mercilessly or if he’ll pull a J. Cole. But history shows us that a single verse can change everything.

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.

The post Rick Ross Delivers Fiery Response To Drake On “Champagne Moments”: A Lyrical Breakdown appeared first on HotNewHipHop.