Yasiin Bey Extends Olive Branch to Drake: “I Don’t Hate Anyone … I’ve Never Had No Issue With You Personally” [Video]

Yasiin Bey formerly known as Mos Def, took to Instagram on Monday to clarify his recent remarks and extend an olive branch to Drake, offering insight into his perspective and guiding fans on where to direct their attention.

“First of all, I don’t hate anyone,” Bey stated on his 25 min Instagram Live. “My opinion is mine. It’s legal in all states, as far as I’m aware. It was not an opportunity to try to slander him, or to clown on him. I have reached out to him, I have no responses yet. I’m not keen to talk about people or to them through a screen, I prefer to talk to people directly. But I will say this. The young man is very talented, he’s been able to be very successful with that talent, and I have no issue with his success or anything that he’s been able to achieve as a result of his talent.”

Despite recent headlines, Bey expressed no animosity towards Drake and condemned the “mean-spirited” and “mocking” he has endured in the past.

“I do feel that some of the criticism that he’s received in the past has been mean-spirited or unfair. So I don’t want to participate in that,” said Bey. “I’ve never had no issue with you personally, I don’t know you well enough to have any sort of issue with you in that regard. Nonetheless, it’s not sacrilegious to have a critique or opinion of a public figure, particularly one of that magnitude in current, modern culture.”

He said, “Drake, if you would like to speak to me directly, you can at any point. I reached out to Chappelle, asked him to reach out to you. I DMed you. You are a very talented MC. But for me, I require more of myself and others than just talent or charm or charisma—particularly in times of urgent crisis.”

He continued, “And what I would like to see, in terms of creators or creative people in the world as it relates to our culture, is for people to connect with us beyond the jukebox. Or the dancefloor. A fairweather friend can hardly be called a friend at all. The people that party with you, that’s cool but will they show up if you at the triage, or you in a crisis situation?”

Bey told fans, “At this given time that we are all living through, this is not where the focus ought to be, what one artist or MC thinks of another one. … I wish there was this much energy about human rights, and real justice, and resolving real life-or-death conflicts where blood is happening,” he said. “And some of that blood is the blood of innocents and children. So we can notice things, right, that are happening in global culture, but where we put our focus matters.”