As quiet as Drake has been lately, the conversation around him couldn't be louder. Even Kanye West called Drake the "No. 1 rapper" in a recent interview with the New York Times. Fans and critics, peers and former collaborators alike all wonder how he does it. How does Drake manage to stay on top and maintain a squeaky-clean image?
Curiosity about Drake's character never piqued higher than in the immediate moments after Pusha-T dropped his world-stopping diss, "The Story of Adidon," in late May. The song cracked open Pandora's box on the first bar, and by the time it concluded, all of Drake's alleged sins had been spilled out into the digital streets. We waited and waited for a response from Drake, and nothing came. (That is, if you don't count his Instagram press release that half-explained why he was in blackface in the image used for the diss's cover art.)
On top of the fact that Drake simply has yet to respond to Pusha-T, questions from other pockets of his life hang in the balance—questions like: Will he address Rihanna saying he made her feel weird? What the hell is up with his shoe deal? IS HE HIDING A CHILD? These are the questions that need answers. Here's everything we hope he'll finally address.
The $100,000 Question
At one point, the figure of $100,000 represented disrespect toward the G.O.O.D. Music camp. After insinuating that he would be sending an invoice to Kanye, Pusha & co. for "selling another 20" for them on "Duppy Freestyle," Drake appeared to actually do so, or at least he did it for the 'Gram.
The tides quickly changed after Pusha's release of "The Story of Adidon." Push knew he did an excellent job at trying his hand at investigative journalism and insisted Drake would come up empty on any hunt for incriminating information about his past. “Let me tell y'all like this: I don't got no skeletons,” Push said in an interview on The Breakfast Club. “It is what it is.”
Apparently, that didn't stop Drake from trying, per Push. In late May, the G.O.O.D. Music president not-so-subtly accused Drake of offering up $100,000 for any dirt on him.
You got a 100k floating around for info? Can’t no amount of money create skeletons that don’t exist... #ImUpset 🤣
— King Push (@PUSHA_T) June 1, 2018
Shortly after, Kanye mentioned that exact same figure on "Yikes," the second track off of his latest album, Ye: "Hundred grand'll make your best friends turn to opps." —Kiana Fitzgerald
The Non-Friendship Between Him and Rihanna
The Truth About His Shoe Deal
The Boy, The Baby and The Baby Mama
The Utter Lack of Response to Pusha-T
As previously explained, Pusha-T shook the entire fucking table in late May, with the release of the searing "Story of Adidon." He sat us all down and took storytelling to a whole new level, dropping alleged facts about everyone in Drake's family, from his mother to his father to his purported son, Adonis, and the child's mother, Sophie Brussaux. Both onlookers and people within the hip-hop industry said Pusha took things too far; I mean, I'll never be able to hear a clock tick-tock again without thinking about Drake's right-hand producer 40's health.
Pusha got down and dirty AF on wax, and we expected Drake to do the same. After all, Push was prompted to lay in the mud with The Boy after "Duppy Freestyle," which Drake fired off in response to Pusha's prodding on DAYTONA's "Infrared." The story, in its present form, is that Drake never responded to King Push because he was given a mandate by Houston rap royalty and fearsome figure J. Prince, to stand down. (Prince later said Drake had a response ready to go, but didn't release it because it was "career-ending.") Then, Kanye came into the mix and tweeted the following:
I’ve never been about beef I’m about love lines were crossed and it’s not good for anyone so this is dead now
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) June 2, 2018
Add on top of that Drake's own mother saying he and Push are "too grown up" for disses, and it all becomes a befuddling mess. Which one of these scenarios is it, Drake? —Kiana Fitzgerald
