Feuds
These two titans of music have come a long way.
Baka Not Nice recently sat down with Hot Freestyle’s Mic Check podcast and talked about being mentioned in Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us.”
When the subject came up, Baka revealed that he initially planned on immediately responding to Kendrick after the Compton MC rapped that he had a “weird case” and asked why Drake chose to continue to have him around. “My first initial thing was to respond and respond quickly, very efficiently and very to the point,” he said. “It started brewing in me because where I come from, that s—t doesn’t happen. You can’t just call out a man and not have paperwork to back up your talks. It’s ludicrous.”
He added that he couldn’t believe how big the song had gotten. “And then to see a whole nation behind it and celebrating it like it’s a true story is unbelievable,” he said. “Everybody has to understand: I have a kid, Drake has a kid, so, like, making accusations like that are ridiculous and out of this world.”
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He then revealed that he didn’t respond because Drake talked him out of it and asked him to ignore it. “I was building up a lot of anger but then I got a call,” he said. “And [Drake’s] like, ‘Yo, I know what you’re feeling, I know you as an individual, I know how you get down but I’m just letting you know, don’t listen to the noise ’cause it’s noise.’ If you go back and look at all these people that are saying things, they’re not even real people, they’re bots. Don’t let that s—t bother you, bro. And you know what? I mean, it’s not a good thing but they’re calling your name.”
Baka then asked fans to do their due diligence and look up the case Lamar was referring to because he felt like he was being accused of pedophilia. “And at the end of the day, they’re gonna get over this crap because they’re gonna realize that it’s crap, and then they’re gonna do their own research,” he said. “And when you do you’re own research, you’re gonna be like, ‘Wow, this guy made up a whole story about something that isn’t even true.’ It makes you look weird to me. I don’t know.”
He finally concluded his answer with a message to fans. “I wanna say one thing to America,” he began. Y’all need to get yourself together because, yo, making serious accusations like that, you need to have paperwork. That is the No. 1 rule.”
Baka Not Nice reveals he was going to respond to Kendrick Lamar, but Drake told him to ignore all the noiseHe also called Kendrick’s accusations “ridiculous” pic.twitter.com/3i5RE4GGXn— Hot Freestyle (@HotFreestyle) April 7, 2025
The “weird case” Kendrick mentioned stems from a 2014 incident when Baka — born Travis Savoury — was charged with procuring prostitution and human trafficking. Those charges were dropped after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a 22-year-old Toronto woman and was sentenced to six months in jail, according to the Toronto Sun.
Drake is currently embroiled in a high profile defamation lawsuit with his parent label, UMG, alleging it defamed him by promoting Lamar’s Drizzy diss track “Not Like Us,” which includes the lyric “certified pedophile.” UMG denied the allegations and later filed to dismiss the case.
Watch Baka Not Nice discuss “Not Like Us” below:
While Ye (formerly Kanye West) has continued to badger J. Cole and his music, the North Carolina rapper took the high road during his set at Dreamville Festival 2025 on Sunday night (April 6). Cole saluted the embattled rapper ahead of performing “Work Out,” which samples Yeezy’s “The New Workout Plan” off his acclaimed The […]
Uncle Luke has something to say about Southern rap music. The 2 Live Crew frontman celebrated 40 years of Miami hip-hop by giving fans a history lesson on his Instagram account about the group’s early struggles to be taken seriously by fellow rappers from New York, specifically Run-D.M.C., Salt-N-Pepa, Kid ‘N Play, Eric B. & […]
Playboi Carti has responded to Ye (formerly Kanye West) after the embattled rapper bashed him about allegedly snubbing Ye from his Music album and then requesting vocals from Ye and Kim Kardashian’s daughter North West.
“YE STFU,” Carti replied on X early Wednesday (March 19).
West — who has been criticized over his repeated antisemitic hate speech — addressed the “Magnolia” rapper hours later. “SHOULD CARTI HAVE EVEN SPOKEN TO MY BABY MAMA AT ALL,” he seemingly asked his 33 million X followers.
Ye continued to take shots at Carti: “CARTI IS JUST A WAY MORE BASIC DUMBER VERSION OF VIRGIL FINESSING YE AND DRAKE CO SIGNS.”
Kanye is referencing whenKardashian posted a SKIMS shout-out on Music to her Instagram Story, and Carti replied by asking his “niece” North to send some vocals for a potential collab. The embattled Chicago artist had felt Carti crossed the line with his initial request for North to send some music, and declared that his daughter wouldn’t be working with the “All Red” rapper.
“I DECIDED NORTH WONT BE DOING ANY SONGS WITH CARTI HOW IT LOOK FOR ME TO GET LEFT OFF THE ALBUM AND THEN HE ASK KIM TO HAVE VOCALS FROM MY DAUGHTER,” Ye wrote earlier. “I DONT A F–K ABOUT NONE OF THIS INDUSTRY S–T AND HOW ITS A SKIMS LINE IN THE FIRST PLACE AND I DONT GIVE A F–K WHAT NO COMMENTS THE MAN HAS THE FIRST AND FINAL SAY OVER HIS KIDS.”
He went on to bring up Carti’s baby mother, Iggy Azalea, and their son, Onyx, in a separate tweet, seemingly trying to get the little boy on Ye’s own music. Azalea chimed in and requested that he keep her son out of whatever issues he has with Carti.
“Ye, I understand the point you want to make,” she wrote in part on X in response. “I say this with kindness & as a mother: Please, leave my child out of this.”
It’s been a turbulent week for Ye, who has fired away at peers such as Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Ty Dolla $ign, Travis Scott, Tyler, The Creator, Pusha T and more already. He even released the self-directed short film version of his Bully album early Wednesday, which stars his son Saint West — whom he also shares with Kardashian — and was edited by Hype Williams.
Ja Rule’s decades-long feud with 50 Cent will seemingly never die, but Ja believes there could’ve been a different outcome had the internet and social media been more prevalent in the early 2000s.
The Murder Inc. rapper pulled up to Hot 97 on Monday (March 17) to discuss myriad topics, including Irv Gotti’s death and the Drake–Kendrick Lamar feud, which led to him recalling beef of his own, such as clashing with 50.
“I kind of wish I had the internet when I had my beef going on,” Ja said. “They would’ve seen things in real time, you know what I’m saying? They would’ve seen who this guy is in real time and then then it would have been a different outlook on what this is. You would’ve been like, ‘Oh, now I get it. This guy’s a f—ing fraud.’ You don’t get a chance to see that, feel that.”
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He continued: “Nowadays, with the internet, sometimes you get to feel too much. With the Drake and the Kendrick beef, you got these guys that break down the whole f—ing battle lyric for lyric for lyric. I don’t know if this is good or battle … We just live in a different time right now.”
Billboard has reached out to 50 Cent for comment.
Ja Rule went on to say that “people didn’t want to see Drake win” anymore after being on top for so long. He related it to sports, with NFL fans being tired of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs winning three Super Bowls in five years. “Kendrick makes a hot record and everybody jumps on it,” he said.
“Drake’s in a position right now, and I know this position well. He’s in a position where two plus two is adding up to seven, and he just doesn’t understand it,” Rule added. “He’s like, ‘How can I be the hottest motherf—er for 10 years and now everybody wants me to lose?’ He’s not understanding the dynamic of that.”
He went on to claim: “Drake could go and make a thousand f—ing dope records right now. People are rejecting his deposit. So that’s what he’s going through right now. But if he was an athlete, and you go put up f–king 55 — you gonna put up 60 points in the night, I can’t deny that, man.”
Ja Rule’s overarching advice to rappers? “Stay out of beef,” he said, before going back to his 50 feud. “I don’t give a f–k what happened. I’m a real one, you know what I’m saying? I don’t think about that s–t, it don’t bother me.”
Watch the full interview below. Ja speaks on his feud with 50 as well as Drake and Kendrick shortly after the 43-minute mark.
While fans are savoring Playboi Carti’s long-awaited release, MUSIC, one artist isn’t necessarily too fond of the new album. On Friday morning (March 14), Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) shared his thoughts on Kendrick Lamar’s heavy involvement on Carti’s 30-track effort.
“I DON’T LIKE KENDRICK LAMARS MUSIC,” an exacerbated Ye posted on X. “HE RAPS VERY GOOD BUT I DIDNT NEED TO HEAR HIM ON CARTI ALBUM.”
Billboard reached out to Playboi Carti and Kendrick Lamar’s reps for comment.
Ye’s targeted post of Lamar comes a month after he said that the Compton rapper was the only one who could beat him in a rap battle. “If you rap against Kendrick, you will lose,” Ye said during his interview with Justin LaBoy on The Download. “This man does this. You know, in Street Fighter, you get Chun-Li, you get a certain kick, and no matter what, you can’t beat that thing?”
Continued Ye, who has faced ongoing backlash for his hate speech: “If you rap against Kendrick Lamar, like Joe Budden said, ‘Never rap against Kendrick Lamar.’ If you rap against Kendrick Lamar, it’s a difficult task, but perhaps it’s something … I’m a psycho genius, so you know, it could be.”
Carti’s colossal release includes three Lamar appearances. The newly formed tandem teamed up on “Good Credit,” “Mojo Jojo” and the Ye-produced song “Backdoor.” For Carti, MUSIC marks his return after a five-year layoff after his seminal 2020 album Whole Lotta Red debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with 100,000 equivalent album units, marking his first-ever chart-topper.
Aside from K. Dot’s trio of assists, MUSIC features a stacked lineup of hip-hop heavyweights including Future, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Lil Uzi Vert and more. Fans experienced delays after a promised midnight release from the self-proclaimed King Vamp. After missing out on the initial 12 a.m. ET drop, Cardi vowed the album would come out at 3 a.m. ET, but it arrived closer to 4.
For Carti, MUSIC, is shaping up to be a well-timed release. He’ll quickly get the ball rolling with his headlining performance at Rolling Loud California this weekend. Shortly after, Carti will embark on a stadium tour with The Weeknd, where he’ll serve as his opener.
Andrew Schulz isn’t backing off from Kendrick Lamar after feeling targeted by the rapper on “Wacced Out Murals” last year.
Four months after Dot rapped “Don’t let no white comedian talk about no Black woman, that’s law” on the GNX opener — a line Schulz and many fans assumed was aimed at the comedian due to his controversial quips about white men who “get slapped” by their Black girlfriends on an August episode of his Flagrant podcast — Schulz once again addressed the situation while guesting on The Breakfast Club Monday (March 10).
First, the comedian doubled down on his past remarks about wanting to “make love” to Lamar, saying in reference to the rapper’s 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show outfit, “When I saw those jeans, I was like, ‘Bing-bop-boom-boom-boom-bop-bam,’” quoting the musician’s “peekaboo.”
Schulz had previously responded to Lamar’s apparent diss on a December episode of Flagrant by joking that he would like to have sex with the hip-hop titan, adding at the time that “the only thing [Lamar] could do is decide if it’s consensual or not.” Three months later on The Breakfast Club, he explained his intention behind the offensive comment: “People made that s–t racism so fast. I’m just saying he’s little … He’s itty bitty, so why is he telling people he’s gonna kill my friends?”
The stand-up went on to say that such jokes are fair game because, he claims, the Compton native was the one who “took it there” in the first place with his incendiary “Wacced Out Murals” lyrics. Also on the song, Lamar raps, “The n—as that c–n, the n—as that being groomed, slide on both of them,” which Schulz took to mean as Lamar inciting violence against his friends, specifically Breakfast Club host Charlamagne Tha God and Schulz’s Flagrant co-host Alexx Media.
“What does slide mean to y’all?” Schulz said on The Breakfast Club. “If you say kill my friends, everything after that is fine. You took it there … I don’t like this idea that like, I’m this big bully. You told your people to kill my friends. That’s the potential interpretation.”
For the record, Charlamagne isn’t as convinced as Schulz is that Dot was coming for them at all. “I appreciate my friend trying to stick up for me, but I don’t think he was talking about us,” the radio host responded after Schulz said his piece, laughing.
Billboard has reached out to Kendrick Lamar for comment.
The 22-time Grammy winner has never confirmed which “white comedian” he was talking about on “Wacced Out Murals.” The rapper surprise-dropped GNX in late November, and the album has spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 so far.
But while Schulz didn’t take kindly to the perceived diss — and is still talking about it months later — the comedian did put some respect on Lamar’s name on The Breakfast Club. “This whole thing got blown out of proportion,” he said. “To say [Lamar] is not fantastic at what he does is ridiculous, and I have a lot of respect for anyone who puts things out for judgement. That takes balls and I admire people that have balls.”
Watch Schulz share his thoughts on Lamar and “Wacced Out Murals” on The Breakfast Club above.
Suge Knight has continued to fire at Snoop Dogg for what he thinks is damaging the Death Row legacy with the “Gin and Juice” rapper at the helm.
Suge was interviewed by The Art of Dialogue from behind bars over the weekend, when he went off on The Doggfather after Snoop claimed Knight was just “mad” he was in control of Death Row.
“You trying to create something that Suge Knight created, but instead of making something big, you disappointed the world by making everything flops,” Knight said. “When I put out Tha Dogg Pound, they sold records. You put out Tha Dogg Pound, they sold nothing — it flopped.”
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Suge believes the essence of hip-hop culture is being destroyed, and claimed Snoop is also killing the credibility of the once-feared West Coast record label.
“You don’t got to talk tough,” he added. “We don’t got to talk about each other that gets [us] nowhere. One person or three or four people is not bigger than hip-hop. We should be trying to figure out how to make hip-hop better. Everybody destroying hip-hop — you guys are making it worse. If you have Death Row, you destroyed it. You messed up the name.”
Snoop acquired the Death Row Records brand from the Blackstone-controlled MNRK Music Group (formerly eOne Music) in a February 2022 deal. “It feels good to have ownership of the label I was part of at the beginning of my career and as one of the founding members. This is an extremely meaningful moment for me,” Snoop said in a statement at the time of the transaction. “I’m looking forward to building the next chapter of Death Row Records.”
However, Suge Knight still isn’t buying that Snoop owns Death Row Records, and demanded he show some paperwork before Suge gives him his respect on that endeavor. “Snoop, you said I’m mad because you bought Death Row,” Knight said. “What you buy? Shut me up. Show me where y’all paid the money to buy it. Show me the paperwork — show me what you own.”
Billboard has reached out to Snoop Dogg’s reps for comment.
Suge Knight remains imprisoned on a 28-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter charges that resulted in the death of businessman Terry Carter and injuries to longtime rival Cle “Bone” Sloan. The 59-year-old former rap mogul is eligible for parole in October 2034.Watch the full phone interview with Suge Knight below.
Much has been made of the Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud of 2024, and Xzibit has chimed in with some thoughts on the historic battle, as well as what’s fair when embroiled in a rap beef.
The West Coast rapper joined Bill Maher’s Club Random Podcast earlier this week, and X made it clear he’s backing Lamar in the feud.
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“What you’re seeing and why people are celebrating it so much is that this big, huge machine and this so-called rapper from Compton,” he said. “Yes, he has success, but he’s not as big as his [Drake].”
Maher was focused on getting Xzibit’s thoughts on Lamar calling Drake a “pedophile” on his Grammy-winning anthem “Not Like Us” and performing the track during his Super Bowl Halftime Show.
“This is a rap battle,” X pleaded. “This is not a testimony or deposition. This is a f—ing rap battle. I’m going to talk about your mama, your daddy, your children, your grandma’s wooden leg, your missing teeth. It’s all a game.”
However, Xzibit appears to say that if the pedophile allegations made in “Not Like Us” were true, there would be cases and lawsuits against Drake tied up in the court system.
“But I never saw anything that proved he was a pedophile. There’s been no court, there’s been nobody brought any cases against him,” X added. “If there was something weird going on, then there would definitely be people that would come forward and testify, and then people would be charged for that.”
Maher didn’t understand where the allegations against Drake stemmed from, and Xzibit pointed to the “Hotline Bling” artist’s friendship with actress Millie Bobby Brown.
“But when you’re playing the dozens, and I give you one that hurts your feelings, don’t be the guy who wants to fight because I got a good joke,” Xzibit said, defending Lamar.
But it seems the Pimp My Ride alum isn’t supporting Drake’s defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group over “Not Like Us.” (The label has denied the allegations made by Drake, slammed the suit as “illogical” and “frivolous.”)
“But he’s basically saying that you did something for someone else that you used to do for me, and here’s how I know,” X stated. “And I’m blowing a whistle now — but that’s not true. Like, the world loves that song.”
Drake reached a settlement with iHeartMedia over an airplay dispute surrounding “Not Like Us” earlier this week. Drizzy had alleged that iHeartMedia received illegal payments from Universal Music Group to boost the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit’s airplay.
Watch the full interview with Xzibit below.