While joining DJ Akademiks podcast Off The Record, 21 Savage talked about how he respects Drake as a rapper because they share the same profession, but that he doesn’t think most people from Atlanta listen to his music that often.
“If I wasn’t a rapper, I don’t feel like I still would listen to Drake, for real,” Savage said in a clip from the episode that can be watched above. “It’s just, I’m a rapper so I understand the work he put in and how hard he goes. Like, when you ain’t no rapper, all those statistics don’t mean shit. A regular street n***a don’t give a fuck about how many times you went No.1, how many white people listen to your shit, because the farthest they think is the club.”
Savage continued by saying that most people from his native Atlanta likely think Future is a bigger artist than Drake, not just because his music appeals to them more but also because Future has a vast catalog of mixtapes, whereas Drake primarily thrives off his albums.
“In Atlanta, there’s a lot of n***as who you really can’t tell them that Future ain’t bigger than Drake. I used to think that…Drake ain’t really no big mixtape artist out there.”
The Savage Mode artist went on to clarify his thoughts on Twitter, quote-tweeting a post that read “21 Savage says that in Atlanta, Future is bigger than Drake😳🤔” early Wednesday and saying, “Na I said some people that come from where I come from do..because when I was younger I was disconnected from mainstream music I didn’t know what Spotify was until I was a rapper…all we knew was mixtapes.”
Elsewhere in their interview, 21 also said that if the opportunity arose, he would have turned down being on Kanye West’s Donda.
“Me personally, I wouldn’t have wanted to be on Donda. That’s just the kind of n***a I am,” Savage said, implying that his loyalty to Drake supersedes the benefits he might receive if extended that opportunity from West, Drake’s known rival.
Savage is currently on the road with J. Cole for his The Off-Season Tour, which saw Drake and Future make a surprise appearance during its opening show in Miami last weekend.
