Pusha T has some thoughts on the battle that broke out between his arch nemesis Drake and Kendrick Lamar, who the Virginia rapper has collaborated with in the past.
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On Saturday (Dec. 7), Emmy-winning journalist and MSNBC correspondent Ari Melber interviewed Pusha for Saint & Citizen’s Saint Sessions Live at Art Basel in Miami, where they talked about a number of topics, most notably the aforementioned rap beef.
When asked by Melber if he thinks Kendrick won the battle, Push answered, “1,000 percent,” before elaborating on how he thinks Lamar pulled it off. “I think that Kendrick is a lyricist and a lyricist that talks to your soul. Like, you could be clever, you can say cute things, you can do things and so on and so forth, right? But the truth really hurts and the truth cuts deep,” he said. “And I think what Kendrick was doing was really talking to his soul. I believe that.”
He then added, “And I believe that’ll cause you to tap out, that’ll cause you to sue, that’ll cause you to do a lot of things. It’s crazy. Listen, suing is crazy … it’s nuts.”
Ari then tried to compare Push’s back and forth with Drake in 2018 with Lamar’s and why they were willing to say the things they said about the Toronto rapper while other peers decided to stay quiet publicly. “I play in a space that my music is, I guess ‘semi-popular,’ I don’t even know if it’s that popular,” he admitted. “It’s a very niche group that messes with me. So, it’s easy to dismiss my wins because it’s not as loud as everyone else’s. Kendrick on the other hand, his music is super popular so it’s a difference.”
The “Story of Adidon” rapper continued, saying artists were “backing away” from him after his beef with Drake, adding that they “didn’t wanna get on records” or “do videos” with him after it ended. “The record labels, the artists, everybody were taking me off of songs, it was crazy,” he said, referencing Pop Smoke’s posthumous album Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon when he asked to be taken off “Paranoia” that also featured Young Thug and Gunna after Thugger was upset Push’s verse was about Drake.
But in his chat with Melber, Push gave Kendrick credit for bringing quality lyrics to the forefront. “It’s good to see lyricism be looked at and respected on such a high level and it’s dope because … what Kendrick did for what we do as rappers was very big.”
