Odd Future may have been banned from entering New Zealand, but when Canadian rap star Drake may have beaten them in the controversy stakes.
Overnight, Drizzy (or Aubrey Drake Graham to his folks) has contested Kanye West – the king of the public meltdown – to the ‘dummy spit’ crown in the space of a few cringeworthy tweets.
“I’m done doing interviews for magazines,” declared Drake after what he thought was a cover story for Rolling Stone published some unflattering comments he made about Kanye’s latest album, Yeezus, as Billboard reports.
A snippet of the printed interview began doing the rounds on the interwebs yesterday, in which Drake is quoted as saying “there were some real questionable bars on [Yeezus]… Like that ‘Swaghili’ line? Come on, man. Even Fabolous wouldn’t say some shit like that.”
But in a since-removed tweet, Drake complained “I never commented on Yeezus for for my interview portion of Rolling Stone;” but that was nothing compared to his slamming the music magazine for choosing to replace him on the cover last-minute. “They also took my cover from me last minute and ran the issue.” Ouch.
‘His’ cover on the February print issue of Rolling Stone instead featured a portrait of Philip Seymour Hoffman, following the actor’s sudden death at 46 years of age on the 2nd February, instead of the seemingly planned Drake story (hardly the first time a Rolling Stone cover has caused troubles).
A decision that clearly irked the egotistical rapper, with another (also wisely deleted) tweet reading: “I’m disgusted with that. RIP to Phillip Seymour Hoffman. All respect due. But the press is evil.”
The only of Drake’s tweets that survived was this latest declaration:
I’m done doing interviews for magazines. I just want to give my music to the people. That’s the only way my message gets across accurately.
— Drizzy (@Drake) February 13, 2014
Rolling Stone have since published the full interview online, containing both the negative comments about Yeezus, as well as praise (“Kanye’s the reason I’m here. I love everything about that guy.”), plus features Drake sounding off on another hip hop star: ‘Thrift Shop’ hit-maker Macklemore.
Speaking about Macklemore’s media-grabbing post-Grammy apology for ‘robbing’ Kendrick Lamar (in the Best New Artist award), the 27-year-old Drizzy says, “that shit was wack as fuck.” Adding that the olive branch to Lamar, “felt cheap. It didn’t feel genuine… I was like, ‘You won. Why are you posting your text message? Just chill. Take your W, and if you feel you didn’t deserve it, go get better — make better music.”
He went on to admit that Grammy awards don’t always go to the best music: “This is how the world works: [Macklemore & Ryan Lewis] made a brand of music that appealed to more people than me, Hov, Kanye and Kendrick. Whether people wanna say it’s racial, or whether it’s just the fact that he tapped into something we can’t tap into. That’s just how the cards fall. Own your shit.”
Sure, firing shots across the bow is standard practice for the rap world (indeed, competition is in the genre’s lifeblood), but telling another artist to ‘own their shit’ on one hand, and then deleting public posts in which you dissed a dead man for ‘stealing’ your cover story seems a little more than hypocritical.
On a side note, we can’t help but wonder if Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig – who wrote a hilariously bizarre “10 outta 10″ appraisal for Drake’s Nothing Was The Same – is still a fan in the wake of the whole saga.
