S. Samuel
G.O.O.D. Music's Common has stepped up to briefly reflect on his short-lived feud with Young Money's Drake and admitted tensions really boiled down to his ex-girlfriend/tennis star Serena Williams dating him. #OverAGirl
According to Common, he felt Drizzy possibly shot subliminal lines at him a couple years ago.
“For me, I think it was an emotional thing,. Meaning, I was feeling like, at that time I think it was the Drake/Serena situation. I didn’t know what was going on with that. I ain’t know if he was throwing things, shots at me. Like you know, this is my ex and you know we’re kinda going our separate ways — unfortunately the war might have been over a girl, even though at the time I never said that. But it wasn’t totally that, it was more or less, ‘Do you respect me? Because I actually like you as an artist.'” (VLAD TV)
Although the dispute was met with mixed reactions, Common said he simply engaged in the lyrical warfare strictly for the love of hip-hop in 2012.
“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)
A few weeks prior, Drake finally broke his silence on getting at Common.
“No. Because despite how it’s been worded by him that situation is not a “hip hop moment” or a “battle for the sake of musical integrity”…it’s a ploy for attention around the release of an album. More than anything it was just disappointing cause what kid isn’t a fan of what Common has done for our genre. A guy who made such an incredible career for himself based off expressing genuine feelings about life and love is now targeting me for sharing my story.” (Nah Right)
A week prior, rapper French Montana said Drizzy wanted a physical altercation with the rap mogul.
“I think it was over [Serena Williams] or something like that,” French said speaking on Drake and Common’s feud. “Shout-out to Serena Williams. I’m staying out of that. With them, you’ve gotta look at it like it’s hip-hop, it’s competition, it’s good for the music. I think Drake wants to fight. Yeah, I think Drake wants to fight. He said he can’t wait to run into him. Man, I’m gonna hit him. I’m gonna let him know [we don’t want him fighting]. Shout-out to Drake.” (“The Angie Martinez Show”)
