top of page

Pusha T vs. Drake

Writer's picture: SagesBeardSagesBeard

Updated: Nov 11, 2023

is beef has been a long time coming and it looks like it has finally popped off...Here's what I think about it.



This beef goes back over a decade where Drake took it upon himself to include him with a previous beef between The Clipse and Cash Money Records.

The original beef stems around payment, well lack of payment for "What Happened to That Boy." The beef would continue with Lil Wayne comments regarding him wearing BAPE clothing, a brand seen previously with The Clipse. The beef would escalate between interviews and tracks including the Clipse "Mr. MeToo.

Drakes first appearance in the beef I think would be his track "Dreams May Come" where subliminal shots are taken at Pusha. Pusha would later respond with "Don't Fuck With Me" that samples the previous track from Drake. Pusha would take the beef to a new level with "Exodus 23:1" and Drake follows suit with "2 Birds 1 Stone."

Drake - Dreams Money Can Buy

Pusha T - Dont Fuck With Me

Pusha T - Exodus 23:1

Drake - Tuscan Leather

Pusha T - Suicide

Pusha T - H.G.T.V.

Drake - 2 Birds One Stone

* I am sure I am missing some tracks, though with the hype, the relabeling of tracks for views, and not overly following the beef it has been hard to do research.


Now we skip ahead to the good part.... With the Good Music Summer Project ramping up, Pusha T was the second album to drop in the series. "Infared" was included as the final track of the album and aimed directly at Drake. The track addresses the common Drake uses ghostwriters that has been used by anyone angry with Drake in the past.

Within 24 hours Drake responds dropping his "Duppy Freestyle." This track seems to attack Kanye more so than Pusha and even the Quentin Miller lines can be seen as a slight. This track would elicit a response from Miller, that was basically a statement that he wanted nothing to do with this beef. Shortly after this Drake would drop his first single "I'm Upset" from his upcoming album Scorpion. Now I am not too sure which of the two tracks it was, I think it was "I'm Upset" that was released the same time that Pusha T had an Itunes event. The beef would then go back and forth a bit on twitter including an invoice sent from OVO to Pusha for 'career reviving."

The internet would go nuts, hip hop being more than vocal about the beef while it would be rather quiet from the two until May 29th when Pusha T drops "The Story of Adidon."

The more I listen to this track the more I see how the assassination of Drake seems like it has been in the works for Pusha for some time now. The layers to this track are crazy especially if it was put together between the drop of Duppy and May 29th. To this point the evaluation of the beef was pretty varied depending on who you talked to, but for myself I had it rated 1-1 ( Duppy over Infared, and Exodus 23:1 being better than everything else previous.)

With the internet going nuts, awaiting a response from Drake, I dove into the newest track itself which seemed to address a lot of new things in regards to Drake....I'll break it down.


The diss begins with the Album Art: The artwork for this track is a picture of Drake in blackface. This picture was quickly authenticated as a real picture from Drakes past. The internet explodes with personalities like Ebro, and Charlamagne the God demanding explanation in which Drake later does....poorly from my perspective. Drake states that he and his friend (Mazin Elsadig) did this while actors for a project they were working on, though we never see any images of Mazin in blackface. Rumors of it being from a photoshoot for 2 Black Guys Clothing are denied by the brand saying that Drake is wearing their clothes but it was not from a shoot. Also the dates between the clothing being from 2008 and Drake stating the images were from 2007. The post is quickly removed and Pusha in turn shares the notice of removal with everyone.


The Beat Selection: For this track Pusha selects "The story of OJ" that works well with both the album art as well as lines from the previous track "Infared." This helps enforce the album art and addresses Drakes blackness.


Drakes Parents: Pusha jumps into it quickly aiming at Drakes dad Dennis Graham and how he abandon Drake and his mom at age 5. He continues to address how Sandi (Drakes Mom) continues to loose, a shot at drake about how she had never remarried as well as how much Drake likes to show off his Dad in recent times. This attacks Drakes upbringing, insecurities, his misogyny and again his blackness.


Drakes Babymother and Adonis: The track continues as Pusha brings up previous rumors of porn star baby mother Sophie Brussaux. It is here where Push brings up Drakes son Adonis and paints the picture of Drake being a 'deadbeat dad." Drake was allegedly awaiting the release of the upcoming Adidas line labelled "Adidon." This part of the song goes deep, and touches on a variety of things and what I think plans that Drake has been putting together for the majority of this year. It seems like Drake and OVO have been on a clean up of their own... cleaning up Sophie's image-Instagram, Gods Plan, Nice For What in preparation for the release of both his son and new clothing line. This is genius on Pusha's part by again offsetting Gods plan with a son he doesn't take care of and Nice for What in comparison to his babymother who he does not care for. It continues with the new name of the clothing line "Adidon" now being paired with the image of Drake in blackface. After the release of the track, images of Sophie circulated included a baby shower image, and Drake pictured with fellow rapper Chinx son. Statements have been released since the track that Drake infact has been taking care of Sophie as well as Adonis. That is the thing with beef though, things dont have to necessarily be true, just believable.


Drakes mention of Kanye in Duppy: Pusha takes time to address Duppy where Drake mentions how he helped Kanye write tracks. This is my favorite portion of the track:


How dare you put Ye in my verses? I'm selfish, I want all of the curses I'm pre-bookin' the churches Me versus three hearses If we all go to Hell it'll be worth it Already aligned with the greats, and on that same note The only ones I chase are two ghosts


Noah: Pusha then turns the beef to Noah 40, and his diagnosis with Multiple Sclerosis. This is where the shock value really tips the beef. Many people think that he crossed the line here, but this elevates this track to the levels of "Hit Em up" status.


He rounds the beef out with his reference to the devil flow which nicely plays off of Drakes claim as the 6 God, and the song ends with reference to Drakes somewhat unpopular single "Im Upset."


The aftermath of the track. With the rumors flying, a fanbase awaiting a response and a variety of feeds and memes, it was looking that Drake may take the L in this. I am not too sure about the rumors of Drake putting up 100K for any dirt on Pusha T, but for me that just validated everything that was addressed in Adidon. If the information was false or made up, drake would follow suit and not have to beg for dirt on Pusha T. At this point I gave up all hope of a response, awaiting to see if there was something that would drop closer to the release of Scorpion only to have all hope lost when Drake friend and Hip hop legend J Prince steps in to end the beef. At this point its hard to tell if Prince made the call to Drake or if Drake asked Prince to intervene. I personally think it was the latter due to all the commentary of how Drake has a career ending track ready to release but Prince told him no.


It seems from what I read that it is pretty unanimous that Drake took the L, with even new articles popping up about Drake suing Pusha over the images etc. Either way the beef was entertaining, Adidon will be added to a long list of amazing diss tracks and everyone will benefit from a slight boost in streams and sales.


Article originally posted on The Hip Hop Librarian.

Recent Posts

See All

Instagram Deep Dive Pt.3

Third installment of discovering some new hip hop through jumping into Instagram. 1. Viva Mescal @vivamescal Track that put me onto...

Comments

Rated 0 out of 5 stars.
No ratings yet

Add a rating

©2021 by SagesBeard.

  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
bottom of page