Drake has once again taken aim at past rap feuds on his new album $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, released within a week after Kendrick Lamar’s brutal rendition of his hit Drake diss track at the Super Bowl.
The 21-track album is in collaboration with fellow Canadian singer-songwriter and music producer PARTYNEXTDOOR. Dropped Friday, it has been accused of ripping off elements from Freddie Gibbs’ 2022 record, $ouls $old $eperately.
In the new album’s song titled “Gimme a Hug,” Drake calls out “rap beef” and people hoping for his downfall.
“They be dropping s*** but we dropping harder s*** / F*** a rap beef, I'm tryna get the party lit / Tryna get the party lit for the b****es,” Drake raps in the second verse, seemingly in reference to his ongoing beef with Lamar, who “finished” him with his Sunday halftime performance of “Not Like Us.”
“Using you for promotion, truer words had never been spoken,” the “God’s Plan” artist adds in another line, likely in reference to his lawsuit against his music label, Universal Music Group - to which Lamar is also signed - over its release of “Not Like Us.”
“Funny how it's only b**** n****s that are waiting on the boy's obituary / 'Cause if I die, it's these n****s that become the sole beneficiary,” he adds.
In the lawsuit, Drake claims that UMG knew the allegations of pedophilia embedded into the song were false but “chose corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
At another point in the song, Drake appears to take direct shots at rapper and presenter Joe Budden. “Melyssa Ford, you a legend from The 6 hate to see you with a dick sucker,” he sings about Budden’s podcast co-host.
The Independent has contacted Budden’s representative for comment.
Earlier this week, Drake trolled Budden from his incognito Instagram account, posting a video of Budden walking and smoking alongside the caption: “$$$HITTING MEEEEEE.”
Budden later responded on a recent episode of his self-titled Joe Budden podcast, saying: “Hey, Drake, don’t shoot at me mad that you ice cold. I’m not doing a back-and-forth with a corpse. I wanted to do it when it was fun.”
Drake, who’s currently touring Australia on his Anita Max Win tour, recently changed the lyrics to his 2021 song “Knife Talk” in an apparent response to his feuds.
In the original recording of the song, the second verse ends with: “Beef is live, spoiler alert, this n***a dies.” However, during one of his Melbourne shows, Drake changed the lyrics to: “Beef is live, spoiler alert, I never died.”
