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Pusha T doesn’t speak much, but when he does the culture listens. In a recent interview, he gave his opinion on the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef.
As spotted on Rap-Up, the front man of Clipse was in Miami for Art Basel. The Virginia Beach, Va., MC was a guest on “Saint Sessions Live,” an in person Q&A hosted in front of a live audience. While he discussed a variety of topics regarding his illustrious career it was his take on this very high-profile moment that soon went viral. Journalist Ari Melber asked him his thoughts about Kendrick’s infamous “Yeah, f**k all that pushin’ P, let me see you push a T” line from “Euphoria.” Pusha T made it clear he got what K. Dot was hinting at.
“I guess he was just telling him, you know he needed to address me before it comes back and trying to go at him.” He went on to reveal that he took the reference as a gesture of respect. “I think it was a great time for me. That whole battle was an awesome time. I think that him being a fan of Hip Hop, he saw it as that.” When asked if he also agreed with the people that Kendrick Lamar won the battle against Drake he emphatically replied, “1,000%.” Pusha T added, “I think that Kendrick is a lyricist and a lyricist that talks to your soul.”
You can see King Push discuss the beef below.
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Spotify Wrapped is back for 2024 and this year’s wrap-up adds some interesting new genres, graphic flourishes, and month-to-month breakdowns of your listening habits. For the eighth year in a row, Drake is listed as the most-listened-to rapper in both the United States and the world.
In some circles, it’s been said that Drake and his audio war with Kendrick Lamar put a tarnish on the Canadian superstar’s musical legacy. However, that hasn’t put a dent into Drizzy’s streaming numbers as evidenced by the latest Spotify Wrapped roundup.
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In the United States, Taylor Swift is just one slot ahead of Drake as the most-listened-to artist, which makes all the sense in the world given her massive popularity and supportive fanbase. With Swift and Drake taking spots one and two, the rest of the United States’ top 10 list includes in order Zach Bryan, Morgan Wallen, Kanye West, Future, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, and Metro Boomin.
On the domestic front, the inclusion of Future, Metro Boomin, and Kendrick Lamar has a tipping point in the explosive “Like That” track that ignited the war of words between Drake and K-Dot and culminated in the chart-topping “Not Like Us” that boosted the profile of the Compton, Calif. star.
On the global front, the top artist is Taylor Swift once more, with The Weeknd, a rival of The Boy, taking the second slot with Bad Bunny at #3, Drake at #4, and Billie Eilish at #5.
As it stands, Drake can once again claim superiority as the top rapper in the States and the OVO honcho may be motivated to gain ground on the global front despite having a largely quiet 2024. All eyes will be on October’s Very Own for sure in the following year.
Source: Spotify
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Photo: Getty
HipHopWired Featured Video
Spotify Wrapped is back for 2024 and this year’s wrap-up adds some interesting new genres, graphic flourishes, and month-to-month breakdowns of your listening habits. For the eighth year in a row, Drake is listed as the most-listened-to rapper in both the United States and the world.
In some circles, it’s been said that Drake and his audio war with Kendrick Lamar put a tarnish on the Canadian superstar’s musical legacy. However, that hasn’t put a dent into Drizzy’s streaming numbers as evidenced by the latest Spotify Wrapped roundup.
Related Stories
In the United States, Taylor Swift is just one slot ahead of Drake as the most-listened-to artist, which makes all the sense in the world given her massive popularity and supportive fanbase. With Swift and Drake taking spots one and two, the rest of the United States’ top 10 list includes in order Zach Bryan, Morgan Wallen, Kanye West, Future, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, and Metro Boomin.
On the domestic front, the inclusion of Future, Metro Boomin, and Kendrick Lamar has a tipping point in the explosive “Like That” track that ignited the war of words between Drake and K-Dot and culminated in the chart-topping “Not Like Us” that boosted the profile of the Compton, Calif. star.
On the global front, the top artist is Taylor Swift once more, with The Weeknd, a rival of The Boy, taking the second slot with Bad Bunny at #3, Drake at #4, and Billie Eilish at #5.
As it stands, Drake can once again claim superiority as the top rapper in the States and the OVO honcho may be motivated to gain ground on the global front despite having a largely quiet 2024. All eyes will be on October’s Very Own for sure in the following year.
Source: Spotify
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Photo: Getty
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Source: @ovodrop / Instagram
After suing UMG for their support of Kendrick Lamar’s smash hit, “Not Like Us,” Drake has become the least liked rapper in the Hip-Hop game today. But that isn’t keeping Nike from continuing their relationship with the Canadian crooner and they are about to drop a new Air Force 1 co-signed by the “Family Matters” rapper.
According to Hypebeast, two new colorways of the “Certified Lover Boy” Air Force 1 is on the way and truth be told they kinda go hard. Originally released as an all-white Air Force 1 with “Certified Lover Boy” etched on the sole, the NOCTA x AF1 will be returning in Pale Purple / Cobalt Tint and CITRON TINT colorways along with translucent soles to match, but instead of sporting “Certified Lover Boy” on the sole, these will have a different message that reads “Love You Forever.”
We’re not gonna lie, we might have to copp.
How sneakerheads will receive these drops should be interesting as Drizzy’s popularity in the rap game has dropped since taking the “L” in his battle with Kendrick Lamar and ultimately taking Universal Music Group to court over said loss. While we’re sure hardcore Drizzy fans will have no problem copping these when they drop, others may be hesitant to do so for the aforementioned reasons.
Still, they’re pretty dope.
Per Hypebeast:
Constructed with premium soft purple leather for the upper, the shoe’s iconic “Love You Forever” mantra is still a standard on the semi-translucent midsoel and outsole. The premium leather gives the shoe a luxe feel, giving the timeless silhouette another iteration. Look out for the pair arriving later this month.
We’re not with the legal action that Drake done took, but we might have to copp regardless. Just sayin.’
Check out pics of the upcoming kicks and let us know if you’ll be checking for them when they release later this month in the comments section below.
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Drake’s legal filings against Kendrick Lamar and UMG have earned him some wrath from Uncle Luke, with the Hip-Hop icon calling him soft.
Drake’s latest move in his ongoing feud with Kendrick Lamar – filing legal petitions against the Compton rapper and Universal Music Group – has rubbed many in Hip-Hop and pop culture the wrong way. Count Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell among them, evidenced in a social media post the Hip-Hop veteran shared over the past weekend.
“I like Drake’s music, I don’t like what he got going on right now but I like his music,” Luke began. “Some things you don’t talk about. You don’t talk about payola, you don’t talk about buying livestreams and you don’t sue after you got dissed, and you done did some dissing.” He’d go on to proclaim that it was a hallmark of this generation. “That’s y’all young people. y’all young people live in a soft society. That’s why I’m glad I’m an OG. All y’all young people soft. Soft, soft, soft. You got rappers that wanna diss somebody, then wanna go get the gun. Why not go and fight?”
The 2 Live Crew founder would go on to share differences between his generation and this one, citing his past beef with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. “One thing that’s off limits, the kids are off limits, girlfriends are off limits, mamas are off limits,” Luke said. His views were mostly met with approval in the comments, with one user writing: “Can’t tell people they wrong anymore without they feelings getting hurt…I just leave everything alone.”
Drake’s pre-action petition claims that Universal Music Group and Spotify were responsible for inflating the streaming numbers for “Not Like Us” using bots on social media and other means. The Certified Lover Boy artist filed the documents shortly after Kendrick Lamar’s latest album, GNX, was released. The move has earned him heavy criticism from others including Joe Budden, who called him a “piece of s—t” on his latest podcast episode, citing the Canadian rapper’s negative actions in the past fueling this karmic retribution.
UMG’s response to the filing was swift, stating: “The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”
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Drake made an announcement that isn’t getting him cooked, for now. The 6 God will be touring Australia and New Zealand in 2025 for the Anita Max Win Tour.
On Thursday (Nov. 28), Drake and Live Nation announced tour dates in Australia and New Zealand that start on Sunday, February 9 at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena. The Anita Max Win Tour will also hit Sydney and Brisbane throughout February before concluding on March 1, 2025 at the Spark Arena in Auckland, New Zealand.
The tour is Drizzy’s first time Down Under since 2017 during the Boy Meets World Tour. Drake’s most recent tour was the sold-out It’s All A Blur Tour, which included 21 Savage and J. Cole.
This news arrives after Drake has been getting roasted online for a couple of legal motions; the first accusing the Universal Music Group (UMG) of boosting Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” streaming numbers and the second alleging that UMG helped defame him by promoting K. Dot calling him a pedophile in the aforementioned record.
Check out the full schedule for the Anita Max Win Tour below.
THE ANITA MAX WIN 2025 TOUR DATES:
Sun 9 Feb – Melbourne, AU – Rod Laver Arena
Mon 10 Feb – Melbourne, AU – Rod Laver Arena
Sun 16 Feb – Sydney, AU – Qudos Bank Arena
Mon 17 Feb – Sydney, AU – Qudos Bank Arena
Mon 24 Feb – Brisbane, AU – Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Fri 28 Feb – Auckland, NZ – Spark Arena
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Joe Budden has made a career out of dissecting music and Hip-Hop culture with his popular eponymously named podcast, and the latest episode found him aiming his sights at Drake. After the news went wide that Drake launched a pair of lawsuits against Universal Music Group, Joe Budden proceeded to heave heavy critique upon the Canadian superstar, which has social media reacting.
On episode 779 of The Joe Budden Podcast, Budden and his cohosts bumped into a conversation regarding Drake’s lawsuits against UMG, the label he’s currently signed to and accusing of boosting Kendrick Lamar’s scathing “Not Like Us” single. Since this episode exists on a Patreon subscription service, we’ve only seen clips that surfaced online, which we’ll share from X below.
Joe Budden telling the unfiltered truth about Aubrey Drake Graham. pic.twitter.com/K2hMLZFuII
— Busby 🏁 (@MrBusby4o8) November 27, 2024
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The Joe Budden Podcast cooking again sheesh
🦉 “was disrespecting someone’s dead mom” “ idc about his dead mom tell him send a beat”
( I wonder if this why metro booming got upset)
🦉 “is more scared of Not Like Us being played at the SuperBowl”
Kendrick Lamar GNX out now pic.twitter.com/GsQ7fU141K
— Whooping feet (@WhoopingFeet) November 27, 2024
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As the clips highlight, Budden believes the industry has conspired in some regard against Drake due to alleged shady dealings with the personal affairs of his foes up to the business side of things. Fans online are taking note of Budden’s jabs as he’s been known to be friendly with Drake over the years but fell out of favor with the entertainer after Budden was critical of his musical direction For All The Dogs.
On X, formerly Twitter, the JBTV community space and others are sharing their thoughts about Joe Budden using the pod to air out his grievances against Drake. We’ve got the reactions listed below.
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Photo: JBP/Screengrab
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Drake continues to have one of the worst years in Hip-Hop after Kendrick Lamar handily dismantled his rival in a series of songs that reached a peak with the “Not Like Us” diss track. In a recent livestream, Drake lashed out at K-Dot’s fellow Compton native Steve Lacy by referring to him as a “fragile opp,” sparking the talented singer to lean into the jab hilariously.
Earlier this week, Drake made an appearance on the Kick streaming channel of fellow Canadian and streamer, xQc. In the clips that surfaced online, the 6 God is continuing to lean into a defiant stance despite the several chinks his armor has taken since his public battle with Kendrick Lamar.
During the stream, Steve Lacy, who Drake referred to as a “fragile opp,” caught a stray for reasons that one can assume are related to Lamar. This happened ahead of Drake throwing a shot at former collaborator The Weeknd and asking xQc to skip the singer’s “Starboy” song. Drizzy did, however, say that Lacy’s track was, quote, a “good song.”
Taking to Instagram, Lacy embraced the petty and trolled Drake for the “fragile opp” bar before asking his legion of fans which one of them wanted the title, effectively taking all the sting out of the insult.
Check out Steve Lacy firing back at Drake’s “fragile opp” shot below.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Ethan Miller / Getty
Drake is doubling down. After initially accusing Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify of boosting Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” to his detriment, in a second filing, Drizzy claims that UMG and iHeartRadio defamed him in the process of making the song massive.
According to Billboard, Drake filed this latest petition in Texas, and he alleges that K. Dot “falsely” accused him of being “a sex offender” in his megahit diss song “Not Like Us.” But his label promoted it anyway.
Per Billboard:
A day after filing an action in New York accusing UMG of illegally boosting Lamar’s track on Spotify, Drake’s company leveled similar claims in Texas court regarding radio giant iHeartRadio. The new filing, filed late Monday and made public on Tuesday, claims UMG “funneled payments” to iHeart as part of a “pay-to-play scheme” to promote the song on radio.
But the filing also offers key new details about Drake’s grievances toward UMG, the label where he has spent his entire career. In it, he says UMG knew that Kendrick’s song “falsely” accused him of being a “certified pedophile” and “predator” but chose to release it anyway.
Part of the backlash to Drake’s initial filing was that he had all this energy to question Kendrick Lamar’s ht song getting all these spins, but none for the accusation of being a pedophile. However, the way he addresses it in this filling is not earning him any points. Instead, the Toronto rapper sounds sour that UMG dared to make money at his expense—when considering they surely made cash off his own diss tracks.
“UMG … could have refused to release or distribute the song or required the offending material to be edited and/or removed,” Drake’s lawyers write. “But UMG chose to do the opposite. UMG designed, financed and then executed a plan to turn ‘Not Like Us’ into a viral mega-hit with the intent of using the spectacle of harm to Drake and his businesses to drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues. That plan succeeded, likely beyond UMG’s wildest expectations.”
While Spotify and iHeartRadio have yet to respond, UMG did so on Monday (Nov. 25). From the tone of its statement, the entity is not to happy with their superstar rapper and the nefarious actions he is insinuating.
“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” said the company in a statement to Billboard. “We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”
This is only going to get more interesting, while Drake is going to continue getting cooked online.
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Anyway you spin it, Drake is looking funny in the light. The 6 God’s lawyers have reportedly filed a motion against Universal Music Group, accusing their client’s own record label of inflating Kendrick Lamar’s streaming numbers.
“Drake has initiated legal action against Universal Music Group and Spotify over allegations that the two companies conspired to artificially inflate the popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us.’”https://t.co/DW4Ti6C7kh pic.twitter.com/VEM8dzlrNT
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) November 25, 2024
Before we get started, yes, Drake’s people are suing the same people responsible for promoting his own music. And yes, social media took this as essentially Drake asking to speak to the manager or even calling the cops after Kendrick Lamar hit him with the lyrical fade that is “Not Like Us,” which is up for a Grammy Awards.
Yes, there are Drake fans who still believe it was the Toronto rapper who actually won the battle. We just can’t take said acolytes seriously, respectfully.
As for that lawsuit, Drake claimg UMG and Spotify conspired by using bots to inflate the “Not Like Us” plays. Reports the UK’s Independent.
In an eyepopping court filing obtained by The Independent, Drake, born Aubrey Drake Graham, says Universal Music Group (UMG) used a network of bots, in conjunction with a so-called pay-to-play scheme, to “manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves” with Lamar’s smash hit song “Not Like Us,” all to Drake’s detriment.
The filing accuses UMG, which has deals with both performers, of paying Spotify to recommend “Not Like Us” to users “who are searching for other unrelated songs and artists,” claiming the label also paid Apple to have Siri “purposely misdirect” users requesting songs from Drake’s catalog, serving up “Not Like Us” in its place. UMG’s ploy, the filing argues, created “the false impression that the Song was more popular than it was in reality.” Making matters even stickier, Drake says in the filing that UMG has tried to hide its alleged propping up of Lamar at Drake’s expense “by terminating employees associated with or perceived as having loyalty to Drake.”
Reportedly, UMG has refusing to entertain Drake’s claims, going as fas as saying his beef is with K. Dot, so he should sue the Compton rapper.
Welp.
Since the suit went public, a Drake “source” has told the media that Drake is mad with UMG’s business practices, and not Kendrick Lamar. Yeah, well, the damage has already been done, and social media is frying Drizzy for acting like a Hip-Hop Karen, allegedly.
Peep some of the more obtuse reactions in the gallery.
6.