S. Samuel
Young Money's Drake reflects on his short-lived rift with G.O.O.D Music's Common last year and why he ultimately came out as the victor in the new XXL Magazine.
Based on an excerpt from his cover feature, Drizzy details how he strategized his attack with carefully written bars for French Montana‘s “Stay Schemin'” track.
“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 sh*t 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.” (XXL Magazine)
The Toronto rapper also proclaims he ultimately won the battle.
“The Canada Dry line? That was epic. I liked it. It wasn’t a good line necessarily, but it was funny. … For you to delve into my mom and my dad’s a b*tch and all that, you’re just reaching for impact moments but the bars aren’t really good so it didn’t hit me. I never sat back and analyzed that either. I only heard it once, and thought, “I think I came away with the W on that one.” (XXL Magazine)
Last year, Common said they finally ironed matters out at the Grammy Awards.
“We had a talk, we had a conversation. It was a face-to-face, man-to-man, a positive thing. It was a good conversation. I’ve learned to respect him even more,” Common explained in an interview. “I already thought he was a talented guy, but just from the conversation we had, I hold even more respect for him. We saw each other and the conversation was initiated. It was just a respectful conversation that needed to be had, so he knew that I’m not at him trying to destroy him as a human being. It was a hip-hop battle to me. I had to put all of those things into hip-hop — I gave him a pound, gave him a boom and it was all love.” (The Real Cabbie)
Common also previously explained how the hip-hop feud ran its course.
“It was all in the honor of hip-hop, it’s kind of over now. It’s over. So, you know, it was all in the honor of hip-hop,” Common told hip-hop personality Toure. “He said some things to me, so I had to say some things back. I wouldn’t say [he] started it, but I knew I heard something said that I felt like it was directed toward me so, you know, I addressed it. That’s all. But thank God we were able to move forward from it and all is good. We’re all emcees and no matter what your age, when you step in the ring — when you see basketball players playing, they don’t be like, ‘Well, this guy’s [small],’ and basically if you’re playing against me or you’re challenging me at some point, I’m an emcee, I like doing that, I like emceeing. I love it. That’s what I go for.” (FUSE)
