Feuds
Page: 4
Eminem and MGK (formerly Machine Gun Kelly) have one of modern music’s longest standing feuds, but if one person can bring them together, it’s probably Jelly Roll. And on a recent episode of the Flagrant podcast, the “Son of a Sinner” singer said that he’s up to the task.
While discussing how he’s worked with both the Detroit rapper and the “My Ex’s Best Friend” musician in the past, Jelly revealed that he hopes to someday “bring them together,” as he sees “so much more of them in each other than they know.” “They’re gonna get together one day, eventually,” he added confidently.
Trending on Billboard
“I haven’t really brought it up to Marshall yet, ’cause I’m just still kind of glad that I’m still in that circumference to be able to have those conversations,” the country star continued. “I also gave [MGK] some perspective too: We all grew up watching Eminem take over the game early. If you got mentioned in an Eminem song, it was like being mentioned in a comedy special. You’re on f–king fire. You couldn’t be hotter.”
Em and MGK first started butting heads in 2012, when the latter — who was 22 at the time — referred to the former’s then-16-year-old daughter Hallie as “hot as f–k” on Twitter, which is now called X. In the years since, the two rappers have dissed each other in their music, and Slim Shady most recently name-dropped his opponent on 2020’s “Unaccommodating.”
“But when they ask me is the war finished with MGK? Of course it is,” Em riffed on the track. “I cleansed him of his mortal sins/ I’m God and the Lord forgives/ Even the devil worshippers.”
Even so, Jelly said that a truce between his two friends is “inevitable.” “I think that they’re gonna find each other’s heart more than they don’t,” he said on the podcast. “If they never do connect that way, [the feud] did more for both of them than it did to hurt either one of them.”
When asked how he balances his relationships with Em and MGK, Jelly noted that he simply stays transparent with both stars and their teams. The “Need a Favor” musician has worked with the “Emo Girl” artist on the tracks “Lonely Road” and “Time of Day,” as well as appeared on “Somebody Save Me” from Eminem’s Billboard 200-topping album The Death of Slim Shady. According to Jelly, neither of his friends has ever had an issue with him working with both of them, despite the two hip-hop stars’ famous beef.
Listen to Jelly share his thoughts on Eminem and MGK’s feud on Flagrant above.
Vybz Kartel is adding his voice to the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar debate — and he’s firmly on Team Drizzy.
While speaking to Billboard‘s Kyle Denis for a cover story published Monday (Jan. 6), the dancehall artist didn’t hold back when prompted to share his thoughts on rap’s biggest feud in recent memory. “I’m not a fan of Kendrick,” Kartel began frankly. “I don’t even listen to Kendrick, so I wouldn’t know.”
“What does he rap?” the “Ramping Shop” musician continued. “I saw it on the internet, but no disrespect to the dude, I hear him, but I don’t listen to him. Drake is more in tune with Jamaica and the culture.”
Kartel added, “Drake is a better and bigger artist.”
The reggae star’s cover story comes less than a week after he made his grand return with a massive Freedom Street concert in front of more than 35,000 people at Kingston’s National Stadium in Jamaica on New Year’s Eve, performing for the first time since his July prison release. Kartel had served a 13-year sentence for the murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams, for which he and his co-accused — Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St. John — have always maintained their innocence.
During the tail end of Kartel’s sentence, Drake and Lamar’s beef simmered over into an explosive rap back-and-forth that fans are still talking about months later. The beef started with the Toronto artist dissing Dot on “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle” in April. Lamar clapped back with a slew of searing response tracks including “Euphoria,” the Billboard Hot 100-topping “Not Like Us” and more, while Drake added fuel to the fire with songs such as “Family Matters” and “The Heart Pt. 6” in May.
Lamar is now set to headline the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show, while Drake is in the midst of taking legal action against Universal Music Group for allegedly conspiring to “artificially inflate” the Compton musician’s streams on “Not Like Us” and for allegedly allowing Lamar to defame Drake on the track. In November, UMG denied the accusation — which the company called “offensive and untrue” — and added 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.”
As for Vybz? He’s in the running for the best reggae album Grammy for Party With Me, which was “done in prison,” the artist tells Billboard. “I was writing to keep my mind occupied, ended up with these songs and said, ‘Let me just put them on a little EP.’ Bam, Grammy.”
The ceremony airs Feb. 2 on CBS.
After closing the book on a turbulent 2024, Drake may be looking to make the most of a clean slate in the new year. Conductor Williams, a producer who has worked with the OVO boss, released a brand new Drizzy freestyle on his YouTube page on Friday (Jan. 3).
While the video was quickly taken down, fans grabbed the “Fighting Irish” freestyle and spammed the viral clip across social media. The visual captures Drake’s side profile as he raps through a small, grainy TV screen.
On the track, the 6 God gets introspective about the trials and tribulations of his 2024 over Conductor’s gleaming production, and seemingly blasts those who switched sides on him throughout the Kendrick Lamar feud.
Trending on Billboard
“The world fell in love with the gimmicks, even my brothers got tickets, seemed like they loved every minute/ Just know the s–t is personal to us and wasn’t just business/ Analyzing behavioral patterns is somewhat suspicious,” he raps.
Drake appears to be targeting those he considered close friends, such as NBA stars DeMar DeRozan and LeBron James, who were in attendance for Kendrick’s Pop Out concert in June. The Fighting Irish was also the mascot for LeBron’s high school team when he attended St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Ohio.
Drizzy also dispels on the track Kendrick’s notion that he has a drinking problem, which Lamar alleged on the diabolical “Meet the Grahams.” “I don’t have a drinkin’ problem, I got a subtle addiction/ I got my father’s habits and I got my mother’s permission,” Drake rhymes.
He also sent a possible subtle jab at Universal Music Group regarding his legal actions alleging that his parent label artificially inflated the popularity of Lamar’s “Not Like Us” diss track. “I hate to see their empire crumble on judges’ convictions,” he spews. (UMG denied his allegations, calling them “offensive and untrue” in a November statement to Billboard.)
Drake and Conductor have connected in the past on For All The Dogs tracks such as “8am in Charlotte” and “Stories About My Brother.”
Billboard has reached out to Drake and Conductor Williams for comment about the track and its removal.
They say time heals all wounds. Once upon a time, Snoop Dogg wasn’t messing with Eazy-E’s “Real Muthaphuckkin G’s” diss track against him and Dr. Dre, but now it’s part of his weekly routine.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Snoop hopped on The Bootleg Kev Podcast earlier this week, where he admitted that “Real Muthaphuckkin G’s” gets plenty of spins over at his Cadillacc Music radio station studio.
“We was busting them upside the head, but when they dropped that motherf–ker, we felt that one,” Snoop said. “Like, the other s–t, we didn’t — but that motherf–ker right there — Eazy was going in on a n—a.”
Trending on Billboard
He continued to hearing it today: “And that s–t be knocking and you hear me singing it. Motherf–k Dre, motherf–k Snoop, motherf–k Death Row.”
Alongside B.G. Knocc Out and Dresta, Eazy unleashed “Real Muthaphucckin G’s” in 1993, attacking Dre and Snoop for the repeated disses throughout The Chronic and mainly the explosive “F–k Wit Dre Day.”
Snoop admitted “that s–t is so hard,” but he was initially in denial of the record’s status. “F–k them n—-s,” he said of his initial mentality when hearing it.
Unfortunately, Eazy-E would end up dying less than two years later in March 1995 due to HIV/AIDS, one month following his diagnosis.
As for Snoop’s 2024, it’s a busy close-out to the year for the Death Row legend, who reunited with Dr. Dre for their first full-length project since 1993’s Doggystyle, as Missionary arrived Dec. 13. The joint album features a star-studded cast of 50 Cent, Eminem, Sting, Jelly Roll and more.
Listen to the full interview below.
Snoop Dogg has reacted to Drake’s pair of legal actions against Universal Music Group in which he alleges that his label artificially inflated the popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
The West Coast legend is on a press run in support of his Missionary album with Dr. Dre, and he stopped by The Bootleg Kev Podcast on Tuesday (Dec. 17).
Kev asked Snoop about myriad topics, including his thoughts on Drake’s legal action against his parent label, which Snoop initially offered up a “no comment” before expanding briefly. “On the West, we hold court in the streets,” he said of his policing preference rather than turning to the legal system.
Trending on Billboard
In November, Drake filed a pair of legal actions, which also alleged that UMG could’ve stopped the release of “Not Like Us,” which he believes defamed him and falsely accused him of being a sex offender. UMG denied Drizzy’s “offensive and untrue” allegations about artificially inflating numbers, telling Billboard at the time, “We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Snoop revealed he spoke to Kendrick Lamar in the weeks since K. Dot expressed his disappointment in one of his mentors on GNX‘s opening track “Wacced Out Murals.” In the midst of Kendrick’s feud with Drake, Snoop reposted Drizzy’s “Taylor Made Freestyle” — which included AI-generated vocals using Snoop’s voice — to Instagram.
“Snoop posted ‘Taylor Made,’ I prayed it was the edibles/ I couldn’t believe it, it was only right for me to let it go,” Lamar raps on the track.
Snoop Dogg quickly apologized and admitted it “was the edibles” and called Lamar the “West West King” shortly after on X.
“He’s a rapper he’s supposed to speak his mind and tell his truth,” Snoop told Bootleg Kev on Tuesday. “I’m his big homebody so I have to take what’s said from his perspective because he’s speaking truth. I’m willing to accept truth when it’s brought to me directly.”
Snoop explained he did a “collaborative post” on Instagram and allegedly didn’t even know what song he was posting. “I’m thinking I’m posting ‘Gin & Juice.’ Then I get the word [Kendrick] didn’t like what you posted,” he added. “Then I deleted it, called nephew and left him a message … Nephew, it’s uncle Snoop, I got the message I apologize I was f–ked up. My bad.”
Watch Snoop’s full interview below.
50 Cent has been one of the rare vocal supporters of Drake during his feud with Kendrick Lamar. The G-Unit boss stopped by Big Boy’s Neighborhood on Monday (Dec. 9), where he broke down the 6 God’s current position in the industry with what feels like the world against him.
While it isn’t exactly the Mean Girls Burn Book, at one point during the interview, 50 — who is known for his trolling — held up a sheet of paper featuring a list of all of Drake’s alleged opps, including names such as TDE affiliates such as Ab-Soul to Kendrick Lamar, Ye and even hoopers such as LeBron James and DeMar DeRozan. According to Vibe, the list is a printout of a 2023 post made by a Drake fan account.
“This is the opp page,” 50 said. “He was just winning consistently more than everybody else in the culture and then these people start to turn into people that feel like they’re opps. All over the page because they keep watching him win. Then you going, ‘I want this thing forever, man.’ I’m not sure you can have it forever.”
Trending on Billboard
50 Cent explained this further during an interview with Billboard in October, during which he went into detail about how the rap game only wants to see you win for so long.
“I didn’t see where what [Drake] did was wack at any point,” he stated. “They giving [Drake] the, ‘Oh you wack, you finished.’ I’m like, ‘Nah, come on.’ That’s the system trying to make some sort of resistance and it’s from the consistency. When you win consecutively, that part of the hip-hop demographic wants you out of there. I started to feel the resistance for the Curtis album.”
50 also told Big Boy that he knows Drake had more material ready to go, but held back after Lamar didn’t respond to “The Heart Part 6” and “Not Like Us” began to form the tidal wave that would crash the entire rap game.
“They was loaded again. Drake was loaded ready to go again,” he continued. “I know they had new material ready to go again. There’s no way you stop and you losing? Nah, I gotta fix it.”
The Queens icon isn’t one to mince his words, so in addition to the Drake-Kendrick feud, he also talked about Drizzy’s legal action against Universal Music Group and plenty more. Watch the full interview below.
The fallout from the Drake and Kendrick Lamar war continues. Mustard called out longtime OVO producer Boi-1da for allegedly trashing West Coast music, and the Cali native posted receipts of their alleged past conversations to his Instagram Story on Monday (Dec. 9). “West Coast music is a–,” the Toronto producer allegedly wrote in a DM […]
It looks like Drake has given Kendrick Lamar‘s GNX a listen.
Two weeks after the Compton rapper surprise-dropped his new album — and amid an ongoing feud that recently culminated in two legal filings by Drizzy — the “God’s Plan” artist poked fun at one of the LP’s most viral lyrics. On “TV Off,” Lamar barrels onto the track with a loud “MUSTARRRRRD!” battle cry to honor producer Mustard, and while watching a recent Los Pollos TV livestream, Drake put his own spin on it.
After commenting “We need a donut emoji in the chat,” according to XXL and multiple other outlets, the Canadian hip-hop star wrote, “CUSTAAAARRRRRD.”
The trolling comes amid Lamar’s reign over the Billboard charts in GNX‘s opening week, with the album debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and launching seven of its tracks to the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. With “Squabble Up” at the top, “TV Off” occupies the No. 2 spot, while “Luther” featuring SZA, “Wacced Out Murals” and “Hey Now” sit at Nos. 3-5, respectively.
The LP dropped Nov. 22. Three days later, Drizzy’s Frozen Moments LLC filed a legal action against his and Lamar’s shared publisher, Universal Music Group, and Spotify over allegations that the two companies conspired to artificially boost the popularity of K-Dot’s Drake diss track “Not Like Us” through bots, payola and other methods. UMG quickly denied the accusations, calling them “offensive and untrue” in a statement to Billboard, adding, “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.”
The next day, Drake initiated a second action, this time alleging iHeartRadio accepted payments from UMG to promote Lamar’s song on air. The second filing also accused UMG of defamation for allowing the release of “Not Like Us,” despite its lyrics “falsely” branding Drake a “certified pedophile” and “predator.”
The filings mark an unprecedented escalation of the two musicians’ ongoing beef, which exploded into the court of public opinion in the spring when Drake and Lamar began lobbing rapid-fire diss and response tracks at one another. The former kicked things off with “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle,” to which Dot fired back with “Euphoria,” “Meet the Grahams,” “Not Like Us” and more.
As for the Mustard of it all, the producer is celebrating his successes on the charts this week. “I’m just getting started,” he wrote on Instagram Dec. 2 while highlighting the high positions of “TV Off” and “Hey Now” on the Hot 100.
Drake shocked the music industryon Monday (Nov. 25) when he accused his label, Univeral Music Group, and Spotify in a court filing of artificially inflating the popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC alleges in the filing that the two parties conducted an “illegal scheme” that involved paid bots and other methods to “pump up” Lamar’s track that viciously disses him and accuses him of pedophilia, among other claims. UMG has denied the allegations, calling them “offensive and untrue” in a statement to Billboard. (Spotify declined to comment.)
The legal procedure — and the second action against UMG that Drake filed Tuesday (Nov. 26) — essentially reignited the flame for the Kendrick and Drake beef, as fans continued to bicker back and forth on social media over his legal maneuvers. “Drake Stan’s acting like Drake suing in order to fight the good fight against capitalism is soooooo funny bro LMFAOOOOOOO,” one person tweeted.
Trending on Billboard
7PM in Brooklyn co-host Kazeem Famuyide took a different approach while examining the industry as a whole. “Kendrick: F the whole industry. Drake: F the whole industry. Cole: F the whole industry. Fans: actually, I’m on the industry’s side here,” he added.
Kendrick: F the whole industry. Drake: F the whole industry. Cole: F the whole industry. Fans: actually, I’m on the industry’s side here. pic.twitter.com/l96ouJWN8P— Kazeem Famuyide 🇳🇬 🍎 (@Kazeem) November 26, 2024
No Jumper‘s Adam22 agreed this could have major implications on the music industry. “Anyone acting like Drake is just a bad loser hasn’t read this s–t yet,” he tweeted. “If half of this gets proven, Drake will look like a hero for exposing the corrupt music industry.”
Former NFL star Arian Foster took a different approach and jokingly compared Drake’s legal action to this being his version of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
“One thing that’s funny to me about Drake suing his label is I’ve never seen so many fans be on the label’s side before lmao,” another fan chimed in. “This the first time where the artist isn’t automatically right to the public.”
In its statement to Billboard, UMG noted: “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.”
Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” proved to be the knockout blow in his feud with Drake, and has remained a cultural staple as one of the biggest songs of the year. The Mustard-produced diss track topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a pair of weeks and hasn’t departed from the top 20 since its arrival in May.
Find more fan reactions to Drake’s legal actions below.
Drake the type of nigga you find in hide & go seek and then he cry and say he wasn’t even playing 😭😭😭 Fuck was you in the dryer for???— I LOVE YOU, PINK!🦋 (@Pinkthepimp) November 25, 2024
Drake reporting Kendrick to the HR department is crazy work— DDOT. (@DDotOmen) November 26, 2024
Drake trolled and begged for Kendrick to get in the ring and got his ass handed to him now he went back in the house and dialed 911— Trav (@travaunt) November 25, 2024
Drake made an appearance on Canadian streamer xQc’s livestream on Sunday night (Nov. 24), and the 6 God didn’t hold back on a multitude of topics. At one point in the stream, Steve Lacy’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Bad Habit” was playing, and Drake seemingly shaded the artist. “This guy’s like a fragile […]