S. Samuel
Cash Money Records boss Birdman has offered his take on building online buzz about Drake's "The Language" track and whether or not the Nothing Was The Same record is a response to Kendrick Lamar.
Despite Drake getting name-dropped by K. Dot on Big Sean‘s “Control,” Baby downplayed the likelihood of the Young Money stud targeting him on the dicey record.
Baby heard the speculation, but he doesn’t think that Kendrick was Drake’s intended target. “Drake do what he do. He really slick with whatever he do. He makes you think. But I didn’t think he put no energy into that,” he said on Wednesday (September 25) when he appeared on “RapFix Live.” “Kendrick the homey, I ain’t got nothin’ but love and respect for Kendrick. Top Dawg is one of my best friends, so I would never want to see us condone that,” Birdman said acknowledging TDE’s CEO. “That ain’t what this about.” (MTV)
Specific lines off Drizzy’s “The Language” have sparked widespread speculation.
“F— any n—a that’s talkin’ that sh– just to get a reaction,” Drake raps. “F— going platinum, I looked at my wrist and it’s already platinum.” (“The Language”)
Drake recently shared some thoughts on the buzz Kendrick ignited and why his main objective did not make sense to him.
“That [‘Control’] verse was a moment to talk about. Are you listening to it now, though?,” he asked, hushing all 850 attendees at NYU’s Skirball Center, including Wilson. Drake continued: “He didn’t come in there on some wild, ‘I’m in New York, fuck everybody.’ I almost wish he had come in there on that shit because I kind of lost a little bit of respect for the sentiment of the verse,” Drake said. “If it’s really ‘fuck everybody’ then it needs to be ‘fuck everybody’. It can’t just be halfway.” (Miss Info TV)
In a recently released Billboard cover story, the Toronto native downplayed Lamar’s line about murdering him lyrically.
“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.” (Billboard)
When Kendrick finally came forward to address the track, he denied wanting to spark a West Coast versus East Coast rivalry from the “Control” bars.
“I feel as though there are certain cats that are going to take it to the next level and make it a rivalry thing. That’s old school homie. Nobody’s trying to do that. We’re black men out here trying to uplift the culture. My first sold-out show was in New York. I always looked at that place as a place that respected my lyrics and respected the culture and the birthplace of it. I think the ones that really took it out of context was the people we know want to grab an opportunity just off the fact of the hype of the record, rapping — a lot of people think it’s about talent. That’s where they get it wrong, I’m saying I’m the most hungry. I respect the legends of the game. I respect people that have done it before me, people that lost their lives over this. Because of what they laid down, I’m going to try to go that much harder and embrace it and live it. That’s the point of the whole verse and what I was trying to convey behind that verse. All the ignorance behind it, kill that noise. It’ll never be like that again, with two coasts rivals. Not on my behalf.” (Hot 97)
Check out “The Language”:
