State Champ Radio Feuds
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SZA is minding her own business. In a GQ cover story published Thursday (Nov. 6), the hitmaker spoke about how she’s chosen to stay out of two major feuds that have gone down recently in the music world — Drake versus Kendrick Lamar and Nicki Minaj versus, well, her.
Starting with the beef between two of her frequent collaborators, SZA — who recently co-headlined a stadium tour with Dot but has been friends with ex-boyfriend Drizzy for years — addressed why she chose not to take sides when one of rap’s biggest clashes on record unfolded last year. “It was something between two grown-a– men, so why would I insert myself between something between two grown-a– men, you know?” she told the publication.
“I feel like that’s how everybody felt — with the exception of people who didn’t feel that way,” SZA continued. “I didn’t really have any stake, per se. Obviously, I love Kendrick. I’m signed to [Top Dawg Entertainment]. That’s my family. Obviously, I’ve known Drake for so long and we have a beautiful rapport. And, obviously, it’s always unfortunate when the unfortunate occurs.”
Despite her diplomacy throughout the back-and-forth, fans couldn’t help but wonder last year how SZA felt about two of her longtime friends — both of whom have helped her score some of the biggest hits of her career with their collaborations — going toe to toe. Tension had been brewing for years, but the feud reached a fever pitch in the spring of 2024 when the two men started lobbing searing diss tracks at one another left and right, including Lamar’s Billboard Hot 100-topping “Not Like Us.”
But while she didn’t necessarily take sides on a personal level, SZA was certainly caught in the crossfire professionally. On the one hand, she served as the Compton rapper’s main guest artist in his 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show — during which he openly taunted his foe while performing “Not Like Us” — but on the other, she also sang her Drake duet “Rich Baby Daddy” every night on the Grand National Tour, her joint trek with Lamar. (“Why wouldn’t I?” she told the publication of putting the track on the setlist. “I don’t know why I wouldn’t be celebrating some s–t that I ate up.”)
Protecting her peace proved more difficult, however, when the Queen of Rap began firing off increasingly mean-spirited posts about her on X this past summer. While in the midst of dissing both Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez and Top Dawg president Terrence “Punch” Henderson — who used to be SZA’s manager — Minaj dragged SZA into the mix with repeated insults about her appearance.
After getting in a few shots of her own during the back-and-forth on X, SZA stepped away. Months later, she told GQ of Minaj, “I don’t know her.”
“We have no connection to each other,” she continued. “There’s no backstory. Like, there was no through-line narrative. It was just like, ‘Roc Nation’ … I don’t know where it came from. That’s not even my place to correct a narrative that I don’t got s–t to do with.”
“It was a little strange,” SZA added. “It was very like, ‘Why?’ But also, you know, ‘I guess.’ ”
See SZA on the cover of GQ below.
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About three decades later, Common is thanking Fat Joe for saving his life. The Chicago rapper joined Joe & Jada earlier this week, where he recalled shooting a commercial in the mid-’90s on the West Coast when an altercation nearly broke out amid his feud with Ice Cube and Mack 10.
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“That man really saved my life. I was out on the West Coast with one of my guys I knew and he just wasn’t happy with the whole Mack 10 [and] Ice Cube beef that we had,” he said.
Essentially, one of Common’s friends escalated a situation, and before it crossed the line, Fat Joe stepped in to smooth things over — at least for Common.
“It’s not cuz Fat Joe is tougher than anyone. I literally begged for your life. I literally got in the middle, ‘He’s my friend, he’s my brother,’” Joe recalled. “They finally saw him on their soil and they was talking crazy and I was like, ‘This is literally my brother and I was begging them.’ It was the serious ones … Basically, I stood in the middle. It was over after that day.”
Common confirmed the beef was squashed from his side from that point forward and compared Joe’s intervention to a scene straight out of a movie.
“You settled that. I’m like, ‘Man, we in California, don’t start nothing.’ They already wanted a piece on me no matter what,” he explained. “My guy out there going off. I knew it was [Joe] that said, ‘This can’t happen.’ … That’s when Fat Joe the gangsta, this n—a here because he was straight up like, ‘You can’t do that to my man.’ It was like one of them movies, Goodfellas.”
Common etched his name in rap history with his acclaimed and scathing diss track “The Bitch in Yoo,” which was released in 1996 and took aim at Ice Cube, raising tensions with the West Coast.
During a 2020 interview with DJ VLAD, Mack 10 rehashed the near-altercation with Common and reiterated that Fat Joe stepped in to smooth things over. “Common is all right. Ain’t nobody got no issues,” Mack said. “Everybody grown. We done seen each other a million times since then.”
Watch the Joe & Jada episode with Common below. Talk about saving Common’s life begins just short of four minutes.
After giving media members an early listen to Let God Sort Em Out at Roc Nation HQ in NYC, Clipse returned to heat up the summer with the album’s second single on Tuesday (June 17) as the Pharrell-produced “So Be It” arrived.
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Pusha T and Malice trade fiery bars over Skateboard P’s chiseled production, but a ton of eyeballs went to Pusha’s scathing final verse, which finds him sniping at Travis Scott.
“You cried in front of me, you died in front of me/ Calabasas took your b—h and your pride in front of me/ Heard Utopia had moved right up the street/ And her lip gloss was poppin’, she ain’t need you to eat,” Push raps in what appears to be a reference to Scott’s split from beauty mogul and reality star Kylie Jenner.
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Billboard has reached out to Scott for comment.
Some speculated that the verse was about his former G.O.O.D. Music running mate, Ye (formerly Kanye West), but King Push confirmed to GQ that he had smoke for La Flame.
Pusha T explained that his issues with Scott were tied to the Cactus Jack rapper pulling up to Louis Vuitton HQ to play his 2023 Utopia album for Pharrell while Clipse was also working on their upcoming album.
“He’s like, ‘Oh, man, everybody’s here,’ he’s smiling, laughing, jumping around, doing his f–king monkey dance. We weren’t into the music, but he wanted to play it, wanted to film [us and Pharrell listening to it],” he recalled. “And then a week later you hear ‘Meltdown,’ which he didn’t play. He played the song, but not [Drake’s verse].”
Drake takes several shots at Pharrell on the track and says he’s going to melt P’s classic jewelry. “Melt down the chains that I bought from your boss, give a f—k about all of that heritage s—t,” he raps.
Having that verse on Utopia after playing the track for Pharrell didn’t sit right with Pusha T, as he feels Scott aligns with whoever when it’s convenient for him, but doesn’t stand by his loyalty to anyone.
“He’s done this a lot. He has no picks. He’ll do this with anybody. He did it with ‘Sicko Mode’… He was on the [Rolling Loud] stage like, ‘Play that, play that,’” Push said in reference to “Like That,” which sparked the Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud. “He don’t have no picks, no loyalty to nobody. He’ll jump around whatever he feels is hot or cling onto whatever he feels is hot.”
Pusha T continued: “So, that’s where my issue comes in — like, dawg, don’t even come over here with that, because at the end of the day, I don’t play how y’all play. To me, that really was just like … He’s a whore. He’s a whore.”
Look for Let God Sort Em Out to drop on July 11. Watch the “So Be It” video below.
LeBron James stays tapped in. The NBA goliath has been bumping plenty of Kendrick Lamar this year, and he’ll have a new verse this summer when K. Dot’s “Chains & Whips” collab with the Clipse arrives in July.
GQ got an early listen to Lamar’s verse on Let God Sort Em Out as part of a Clipse cover story released on Monday (June 2), and LeBron reposted one of the Compton rapper’s unhinged bars — as first revealed in the magazine — to his Instagram Story.
“Therapy showed me how to open up! It also showed me I don’t give a F,” he wrote to IG as the lyric clearly resonated with the Lakers star.
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According to Pusha T, Kendrick’s verse was at the center of his and Clipse’s split from Def Jam, as the record label wanted Lamar removed from the project completely.
“They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing,” Push told the publication. “And then they wanted me to take the record off. And so, after a month of not doing it, Steve Gawley, the lawyer over there, was like, ‘We’ll just drop the Clipse.’ But that can’t work because I’m still there [solo]. But [if] you let us all go.”
Def Jam did not reply to Billboard‘s initial request for comment on Pusha’s statement.
Clipse ended up inking a distribution deal for a comeback album with Roc Nation. Many fans online tied the alleged attempted censorship to Def Jam’s parent label, Universal Music Group, being actively sued by Drake for defamation over the alleged artificial inflation of Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” The label has denied Drizzy’s claims, and in early May, asked a judge to dismiss his updated lawsuit.
“Chains & Whips” will serve as Pusha T’s first collab with Lamar since teaming up for “Nosetalgia” in 2013. The track was initially premiered at Pharrell’s Louis Vuitton fashion show earlier this year.
LeBron James has continued to show support for Kendrick after making an appearance at the award-winning rapper’s Pop Out concert last year, which seemingly damaged the NBA star’s relationship with Drake in the heat of battle.mDrizzy appeared to send shots at King James on the leaked “Fighting Irish” freestyle in January, but the Conductor Williams-produced track was quickly scrubbed from YouTube.
Clipse kicked off the project’s rollout with “Ace Trumpets” on May 30. Look for Let God Sort Em Out to arrive on July 11.
Pusha T severed ties with G.O.O.D. Music, where he served as the label’s president and distanced himself from Ye (formerly Kanye West) in late 2022.
King Push and his brother No Malice graced the cover of GQ on Monday (June 2), and Pusha reflected on his falling out with the embattled rapper, who has faced criticism for his repeated hate speech.
“The one thing that I can say about [Ye] is that he knows that every issue that he’s having and crying about online right now, I’ve told him distinctly about those things,” Push said. “He don’t talk to me like he talks to others.”
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Pusha T took things a step further while disrespecting Ye and saying that he doesn’t “think he’s a man” following his myriad controversies over the years.
“His intuition is even more genius-level, right? But that’s why me and him don’t get along, because he sees through my fakeness with him,” he continued. “He knows I don’t think he’s a man. He knows it.”
The Virginia rapper went on: “And that’s why we can’t build with each other no more. That’s why me and him don’t click, because he knows what I really, really think of him. He’s showed me the weakest sides of him, and he knows how I think of weak people.”
Billboard has reached out to Ye’s rep for comment.
Pusha T and No Malice kicked off the Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out rollout on Friday (May 30) with “Ace Trumpets,” which finds Push name-dropping Yeezy.
“Sold ecstasy and disappeared, I am Whodini/ Look at them, him and him, still waitin’ on Yeezy/ I hope you got your squeegees/ At your interviews, I just ki-ki,” he raps.
Ye got wind of Pusha’s bars and expressed that he misses the friendship they once had. “I miss me and Pusha’s friendship,” West wrote of his ex-G.O.O.D. Music president to X.
While Yeezy won’t be appearing on Let God Sort Em Out come the July 11 release date, Push confirmed that Kendrick Lamar is slated to be featured on the album track “Chains & Whips.”
However, Lamar’s assist was at the center of Clipse’s rift with Def Jam, as the Universal Music Group-owned label wanted K. Dot’s verse removed from the project. Push stood firm in keeping the Compton rapper on the album, which led to a split with Def Jam for the duo as well as Pusha’s solo career. LGSEO will now be distributed by Roc Nation.
“They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing,” he said. “And then they wanted me to take the record off. And so, after a month of not doing it, Steve Gawley, the lawyer over there was like, ‘We’ll just drop the Clipse.’ But that can’t work because I’m still there [solo]. But [if] you let us all go.”
Billboard has reached out to Def Jam for comment.
Cardi B torched Offset after learning that her estranged husband filed for spousal support in their divorce proceedings. She hopped on X Spaces on Friday (May 30) and exploded on her ex for his spousal support request. The Grammy-winning rapper called Set a “f—-ing b—h” during her emotionally charged rant.
“Cus now I’ma crash out and I don’t give a f–k. You a b—h. N—a, you a f—ing b—h,” she began. Cardi B called out the reasoning behind Offset’s spousal support request, as he told The Breakfast Club it was over Cardi “asking for everything” and not letting him see their kids, which she denies.
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“You such a f–king p—y a– n—a,” she continued. “Word to my mother, I want you to die, but I want you to die f–king slow. When you die, I want you to die slow in the bed. And when you die, n—a, you gotta think of me.”
Cardi explained that she amended her divorce filing, asking for “no child support” because she “wants to be done with this marriage.”
“[Offset] is allowed to see my kids. He stood up my kids three times. He has seen Blossom only like five times,” she said of their four-month-old. “And I’ve been trying to save your face … Stop playing.”
She went on to claim that the last time Offset saw their kids was in March at his son Kody’s birthday. (He shares the 7-year-old with ex Oriel Jamie. Cardi detailed that the Migos rapper took issue with having to see their kids in a hotel room since she’s not allowing him to pull up to their New Jersey house.
Billboard has reached out to Offset’s reps for comment.
Earlier this month, Offset updated Cardi’s divorce petition in New Jersey’s Bergen County Superior Court with a request for an unspecified amount of alimony.
After more than six years of marriage, Cardi filed for divorce from Offset in August for a second time, seeking primary custody of their 6-year-old daughter Kulture, 3-year-old son Wave and baby girl Blossom. In February, Offset responded to the divorce, seeking joint custody of the children.
It appears Cardi B has moved on, as the “WAP” rapper was spotted courtside at a New York Knicks playoff game earlier in May with NFL star Stefon Diggs.
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The two rap stars are having a very public fallout, but how did they get to this point?
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When Ye (formerly Kanye West) shared his “Alive” collaboration with YoungBoy Never Broke Again, which samples Playboi Carti’s “Crank,” to his Instagram on Wednesday (May 21), many thought it signaled a truce between West and the Opium frontman, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Shortly after the embattled rapper shared “Alive,” Carti dropped his version with YoungBoy and fired at Ye with his caption, claiming ownership of the track. “DIS MY SONG LIL BRA @ye,” he wrote in the since-deleted post.
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Billboard has reached out to the “Stronger” rapper’s camp for comment.
It’s unclear who had the track first, but streamer Sneako, who has been with Ye over the last month or so in Spain, claimed that it’s Yeezy’s and he made the beat for the track, which sounds like a sister of the blaring “New Slaves” from West’s Yeezus album.
“Ye made the beat, clearly,” claimed Sneako. “If you listen to Carti’s version, it’s not good.”
Ye — who has been criticized for his repeated hate speech the last few years — ended up releasing “Alive” on Apple Music on Thursday morning (May 22), while Carti and YoungBoy have remained quiet. It’s unclear whether Carti will take action, since “Alive” samples DJ Swamp Izzo’s version of “Alive,” which is featured as part of Playboi Carti’s “Crank” track.
Carti moved on quickly Wednesday and leaked another song titled “Some More” on Instagram, but that post was also deleted. YoungBoy even shared a solo track called “Finest,” so it ended up being a great day for hip-hop fans of the three artists.
There have been instances where Ye has had issues with sample clearances in the past, as tracks from his Vultures album were removed due to unauthorized use, including “Good (Don’t Die)” for a Donna Summers sample.
Yeezy and Playboi Carti’s relationship soured earlier this year when the Atlanta rapper left Ye off his Music album and opted to invite guests including Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar into the fold.
“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 to X in March.
Carti’s response to that? “YE STFU.”
Joey Bada$$’s war of the words with the West Coast is heating up. The Brooklyn rapper returned fire on what was a busy Monday night (May 19) in hip-hop as Joey directed his attention at Ray Vaughn, Kendrick Lamar and more on his scintillating “My Town” diss track.
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“I’m the real boogeyman, y’all n—-s should be afraid/ Get the general, I’m killing his troops,” he raps while teasing Lamar. “Don’t make me Pulitzer, better be wise because/ I’m dottin T’s and cross your eyes like Whitaker.”
Joey had plenty of smoke for TDE’s Ray Vaughn and sniped at AzChike, who threw his hat into the ring on Monday with his “What Would You Do” diss track.
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“Look, Ray Vaughn was so last week/ Now, I’m hearing s–t about some nigga named ‘Ass Cheek’/ Who wanna be the next victim/ How many Top Dawgs will it take to sick ’em,” Joey spews.
The 30-year-old pays homage to Cam’ron’s “Welcome to New York City” with his own spin on the Big Apple staple to close out the outro.
Kendrick has yet to address Joey’s shots, as the Brooklyn native previously taunted the Compton legend on “The Finals” earlier in May.
Ray Vaughn didn’t waste any time in returning fire on Monday with “Golden Eye,” which finds him rapping over 50 Cent’s classic “Back Down” instrumental.
“Vaughn Wick” jabbed at Joey Bada$$’s relationship with Diddy and claims that there’s a video implicating Joey in crimes with the disgraced Bad Boy mogul. “If you’re standin’ next to Diddy, then you shouldn’t mention dick/ ‘Cause if they ever show that footage, you gon’ have to plead the fifth,” he raps.
The explosives are still seemingly dropping out of the sky every hour as Daylyt returned on Tuesday (May 20), going after Joey on “Ayo.”
The Joey Bada$$ versus the West Coast battle began on New Year’s Day when Joey gritted his teeth on “The Ruler’s Back.” He appeared to reignite the flame last week during the “Red Bull Spiral Freestyle” alongside Ab-Soul and Big Sean.
Monday brought about a barrage of lyrical missiles fired as AzChike, Daylyt, CJ Fly, Kai Ca$h, JaeWon, Joey Bada$$ and Ray Vaughn all exchanged diss tracks.
Find a timeline to keep up with the entire battle below.
Great day in hip hop 🏆 5.19.25 Joey vs. West (21) https://t.co/pptn4lxeYEJoey Bada$$ “The Ruler’s Back” 1.1.25DAYLYT “HIYU” 1.7.25Ray Vaughn “Crashout Heritage” 1.8.25Joey Bada$$ “Sorry Not Sorry” 1.20.25CJ Fly “HIYU Freestyle” 1.27.25DAYLYT “YHRR” 2.3.25Ray Vaughn…— Elliott Wilson (@ElliottWilson) May 20, 2025
Snoop Dogg and Suge Knight haven’t seen eye-to-eye for years, and the Long Beach legend took his beef with his former boss to his new Iz It a Crime? album.
Snoop fired away at Knight on the explosive “ShutYoBitchAssUp,” on which he boasted about taking ownership of Death Row from Knight, and then went on to label the incarcerated former music executive a snitch.
“I can see why you mad/ I bought everything you own/ Now you in PC snitching on the phone/ But I can slap the taste out your muthaf–kin’ mouth/ Pull up on your n—a, make you wanna reroute/ And if he hit the main line, he gon’ see what we bout/ Oh b—h-ass n—a, I’m a rich-ass n—a,” he raps.
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Snoop Dogg’s abrasive bars come months after Suge Knight claimed Snoop was “destroying” hip-hop’s credibility along with Death Row during an interview from prison with The Art of Dialogue.
“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 in March. “When I put out Tha Dogg Pound, they sold records. You put out Tha Dogg Pound, they sold nothing — it flopped.”
He continued: “You don’t got to talk tough. 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.”
While Snoop acquired the Death Row Records brand from the Blackstone-controlled MNRK Music Group (formerly eOne Music) in a February 2022 deal, Suge Knight still isn’t buying it.
Knight demanded that Snoop 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, also on The Art of Dialogue. “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.”
Suge Knight, 59, is currently serving a 28-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter charges that are tied to the death of businessman Terry Carter and injuries to his rival Cle “Bone” Sloan. The former rap mogul is eligible for parole in October 2034.
Iz It a Crime? arrived on Thursday (May 15) and features assists from Wiz Khalifa, Pharrell Williams and Sexyy Red.
Listen to “ShutYoBitchAssUp” below.
