Drake Opens Up About Feud With Pusha T, Explains How Kanye West Played a Major Role In the Beef: “I Just Believed Then and Believe Now That There’s Just A Price You Have To Pay For That”

In the highly anticipated return of LeBron James’ HBO show, “The Shop,” Drake spilled all the tea about the drama leading up to and after the infamous diss track, “The Story of Adidon.” 

Initially, according to Drake, it all started with a work relationship with Kanye West, but as it turns out, West played him and ultimately used his kindness for a weakness – or in this case, as ammo for a diss track. 

“I ended up linking with ‘Ye and he sold me on this whole speech of like, you know, ‘I’m in a great place, I’m making money, and I’m a father and I want to be Quincy Jones and help you,” he said of West, who added, “‘But in order to do that, you gotta be transparent with me and you gotta play me your music and you gotta tell me when you’re dropping.”

“So, I was in the studio – we all kinda felt a genuine vibe from him, so I played him my music and I told him when I was dropping,” Drake continued, adding that West also offered him his beat for, “Lift Yourself.” 

As Drake continued, he said he began writing to “Lift Yourself,” before he headed to Wyoming to work on more music with ‘Ye. But, upon arrival, that’s when Drake realized the producer-turned-rapper had been working on an album, but still, the Canadian-bred rapstar joined ‘Ye in the Equality State and spent the rest of his time working on ‘Ye’s project. 

In addition to Drake’s work on ‘Ye’s music, he said he also played him “March 14,” where he opens up about his son, and sent him pictures of his blue-eyed baby. 

“We had a conversation, I shared my – So, I wake up and all these dates are out, one by one by one, all around June 15th,” he said. “Next two days, whatever, I wake up to this text from him – passive, like, ‘Yo, I love you brother’ – ‘Lift Yourself’ come out with him just talking nonsense. I’m like, ‘Oh, this guy’s trolling me.” 

“Then, the first album drops and there’s a diss song towards me, that you produced, that’s talking about writing? I was just there with you as friends, helping you, and now you’re dissing me,” he said. 

As the discussion continued, Drake opened up about reaching out to LeBron James in that moment, in his hopes that he wouldn’t be disappointed in his decision to not respond for the sake of his own reputation. 

“People love to say, ‘Ah man, there’s no rules in this shit,’ but, there are fucking rules in this shit,” he said. “I knew something was going to come up about my kid, they had to add the dead beat thing to make it more appealing, which is fine. The mom and dad thing is like, ‘Whatever, you don’t even know my family.’ But i’ma tell you, wishing death on my friend that has MS – I study rap battles for a living – when you mention defenseless people who are sick, in the hospital, that passed away that really sent me to a place where, you know, I just believed then and believe now that there’s just a price that you have to pay for that. It’s just – it’s over. Someone’s gonna punch you in the fucking face. The shit’s done. I wanted to do other things, I didn’t wanna further your reputation or your career by rapping back with you,” he said. BUT, he did write that record, and it was going to be terrible. 

“I listened back to it, and I was like ‘Man, this is not something I ever want to be remembered for, this is not even a place I necessarily want to go,” Drake said, “By the way, hell of a chess move. The song, I thought it was trash but the chess move was genius. Back against the wall, I either go all the filthy or I fall back and I have this chink in my armor for the rest of time to a rap purist -which is fine, I can live with that.”

“I would much rather live with that than the things I was about to – the research I did, the things I was gonna say, the places I was going to go, not only for him but the other guy too,” Drake said. “Now, I feel pure, I’m good.”