Lil Yachty Says Drake Was ‘Genuinely Unfazed’ by Kendrick Lamar Feud
Lil Yachty has developed a close bond with Drake over the last few years, and he’s had a front-row seat to the 6 God’s recent career moves as a collaborator.
Boat stopped by the Flagrant podcast with Andrew Schulz on Wednesday (July 31), where he claimed that Drake was “genuinely unfazed” by the Kendrick Lamar feud, and has been able to tune out the deafening noise and “Not Like Us” trolls coming from the outside world.
“He’s still that n—a. They both still that n—a. What’s gon’ change? They both gon’ do they thing,” he said. “I talked to him and that sh– didn’t bother him. As it shouldn’t — he’s the f—ing guy. If I had $700 million you couldn’t talk to me either.”
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While Yachty still kept in contact with Drake, he was actually overseas in Europe when the battle with Kendrick was reaching its peak.
“I never saw him down. I never saw him kicking his f—ing foot holding his head down, to the point where I stopped talking to him about it because I felt like I was the one bringing him the negativity,” Yachty continued around the 1:36 mark.
He continued: “I was bringing the cloud when I’d be like, ‘Man, I hate that this person said this.’ I was showing him sh– he hasn’t seen. Then I realized I’m bringing you the negativity, let me stop. I just realized his energy wasn’t down, so I wasn’t going to try [to bring him down].”
Earlier in the episode, Yachty and the co-hosts debated why a contingent of hip-hop fans were “energized about the elimination of Drake,” as Ye put it in April.
The “Minnesota” rapper hypothesized that people had Drake fatigue and were tired of seeing him winning and dominating the rap game for over a decade.
“I think people just hate on Drake because he’s the guy,” he speculated. “It’s also because he f—ed everyone’s bi–h. He’s also that guy, though. All the records, all the numbers. He’s the one.”
However, Lil Yachty regretted inserting himself into the commentary surrounding the beef. “I just wish I had never spoke on it,” he admitted.
Kendrick Lamar actually name-dropped the Atlanta native to jab at Drake on the scathing “Euphoria.” “Yachty can’t give you no swag neither, I don’t give a f— ’bout who you hang with,” Lamar raps on the diss track.
50 Cent had a similar theory to Yachty when it comes to his belief about Drake’s rap peers being jealous of his success.
“Look, our culture loves to see you go up because it’s confirmation that they can go up,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “But when you stay up — ‘I want this sh– forever, man’ — they go, ‘Well, goddamn. When you going to come down? If you don’t come down, I ain’t going to have my chance to go up.’ And then it’s these clouds that come over you, and that cloud is doubt, a shadow of doubt that doesn’t come from material or your work ethic.”
50 continued: “It’s doubt from the artist community, where they say, ‘I don’t know, his new sh– is cool, but it’s not his first sh–.’ They do that to you and Drake’s just experiencing what you experience as a backlash from success, from the consistency he’s delivered over and over. I don’t see a loss for Drake. The people who bought Drake material are going to buy Drake material when his next song comes out.”
Drake and Kendrick Lamar exchanged diss tracks from April into early May. Billboard hailed K. Dot as the victor, and he’s gotten the last laugh with his “Not Like Us” diss dominating the Billboard Hot 100, where it stands at No. 3 on this week’s chart after spending two nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1.
Listen to the full podcast below. The pair of Drake segments take place around the 51-minute and 1:33 marks.
