Recently Tory Lanez has stepped into the area by going verse for verse with all challengers. Yet, often lines tend to get blurred between real tension and friendly competition. As a result, Lanez sat down with Pitchfork to bring clarity to all of his beefs thus far.
"I think any lyrical battles I've had, like with Don Q and Joyner Lucas, were friendly battles," Lanez explained. "I’m friends with Don Q today. I was talking to him the other day. Joyner Lucas, same thing... It’s purely for the sport of hip-hop."
While many knew his bouts with Don Q and Lucas were merely lyrical sparring sessions, they did spawn some real reactions between Lanez and other artists, namely Dream Doll and Royce Da 5'9".
"First of all, Dream is my homegirl. And I think even she got it twisted what I was saying in that line," Lanez stated. "I said, Don Q, 'You paid Dream Doll to get to the pussy.' I never said, 'You f*cked Dream Doll for a verse.' I never said that."
Dream Doll seemingly took offense to her name being mentioned while Lanez and Don Q were slap boxing which prompted her to drop her own diss track aimed directly at Lanez. When asked about this, Lanez told Pitchfork he and Dream Doll have talked since and laughed about the record together.
All these stories resulted in an expected happy ending. But Lanez's exchange with known lyrical giant Royce Da 5'9" had a more peaceful outcome than fans prophesized.
"We spoke and it was like, 'Yo, what’s the deal? I feel like you was hating on me in the Joyner situation,'" Lanez said about confronting Royce from an argument the two had on social media. "His response was, in a nutshell, 'Yo, bro, first and foremost, that was just my opinion on it.' It was along the lines of a miscommunication. I didn’t know it was a miscommunication."
By defusing situations with communication and keeping the competition in the booth, Lanez is proving that if you don't need "two gats to go to sleep" then it's not real beef. Also, he let it be known that the competitive spirit is not limited to battles.
"I don’t wanna battle everybody. People think I just wanna battle everybody. No. Let’s go on the same song. We could do this as a collaborative effort. You do your best and I’ll do my best. And then the people will decide who’s done their best and who’s better," he said.
