(AllHipHop News) Drake has no issues with Kendrick Lamar and yet, he’s absolutely comfortable with the prospect of never seeing his Compton counterpart ever again as long as they live.
The pair were friends but after Kendrick’s now-famous “Control” verse their relationship has been noticeably strained.
“There’s no real issue. It’s tough because the people wanna see us tear each other down; I don’t wanna give them that. There’s no point. I have no ill feelings toward that guy. It’s just like, it’s there for me if I wanna fall for it. I’m just too smart for that,” he told VIBE. “Hopefully it’s the last time I gotta talk about this, ’cause every time I open my mouth up about it, they take this piece and take this piece. And he’s hungry, so he’s going to do what he has to do like the BET [cypher]. But again, it’s not enough for me to go. We haven’t seen each other [since the BET cypher,] but I’m sure we’ll see each other and it’ll be cool. And if it’s not, then I guess that’s how our story unfolds.”
He said the Control verse and subsequent BET Cypher verse were ill-timed for his plan, as he was about to roll out his hit album Nothing Was The Same.
He wasn’t willing to take the bait and be lured into a rap battle.
Continuing, he said, “The sentiment he was putting forth is what he should have. Of course you wanna be the best. Where it became an issue is that I was rolling out an album while that verse was still bubbling, so my album rollout became about this thing. What am I supposed to say? Nah, we’ll be buddy-buddy? Mind you, I never once said he’s a bad guy [or] I don’t like him. I think he’s a f*cking genius in his own right, but I also stood my ground as I should. And with that came another step, which then I have to realize I’m being baited and I’m not gonna fall. Jordan doesn’t have to play pickup to prove that he could play ball, no offense. But I’m not gonna give you the chance to shake me necessarily, ’cause I feel great.”
The interview appears in a special issue on race from VIBE.
