Camila Cabello has weighed into the feud between rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
The 27-year-old “Havana” singer, who convinced Drake to feature on two songs on her newly released album C,XOXO, has said in a new interview that it’s “frustrating to see people talk about someone you know in a way that is negative”.
“You’re like, ‘Dang, if only you guys could just have dinner or something,’” she told The Times.
Years of rivalry between Drake and Lamar came to a head in May when both rappers released a string of diss tracks taking aim at each other, dishing out harsh insults and speculative allegations in each verse. Drake’s feature on Cabello’s album makes it his first release since he and Lamar went head-to-head.
Cabello, who rose to fame in the pop group Fifth Harmony before embarking on a solo career, first started working with “Hotline Bling” rapper Drake after she sent him a message on social media asking if he would feature on her new album, but assumed he would never reply.
“It’s like a weird teenage thing where I feel that nobody cares about me or likes me. And it was fun to be proven wrong,” she reflected.
She said she decided to message the rapper because “I live such an insular life. I just hang out with my family and friends, and I don’t like going to parties where there’s other artists. I guess because I started out so young, I just naturally rebelled against that life, and the performative aspects that come with it”.
The pair recorded “Hot Uptown” together for Cabello’s album, before making “Uuugly”, at Drake’s suggestion. Cabello said Drake was “such a delight” to work with.
Back in May, Drake accused Lamar of hypocrisy when it comes to his pro-Black activism, as well as domestic violence and other themes in his diss track “Family Matters”. Meanwhile, Lamar, in his diss track “Meet The Grahams”, accused Drake of hiding a secret daughter, and of having a series of addictions to gambling, alcohol, drugs and sex.
In Lamar’s track “Not Like Us”, he called Drake a “certified paedophile” as he made multiple references to his alleged interactions with younger women. The commercial success of that track has seen the rap fans on the internet unofficially crown Lamar the winner of May’s diss-track battle, though it’s likely the feud is not yet over.
Drake’s name is just one among a starry list of features on Cabello’s new album C,XOXO. “Uptown Road” singer Lil Nas X, Playboi Carti and City Girls rappers JT and Yung Miami have all featured in separate songs.
C,XOXO has received mixed reviews since its release, with The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis giving it a two-star review, noting that the singer “isn’t present” on many of the songs featuring other artists, while the album as a whole is “totally unconvincing”.
Meanwhile, Pitchfork rated the album a score of 6.9, with Harry Tafoya writing that Drake’s feature on the album arrives “on the back of his bruising defeat to Kendrick Lamar is a miracle of bad timing”.
