The thing that struck Drake the most about his beef with Meek Mill this summer is the thing that a lot of people found odd: the fact that Meek started it, but didn’t seem to have any diss records on deck with which to wage the rap battle. Drake opened up about all of this in a recent interview with The Fader.
“This is a discussion about music, and no one’s putting forth any music?” Drake asked rhetorically. “You guys are gonna leave this for me to do? This is how you want to play it? You guys didn’t think this through at all—nobody?”
"You guys have high-ranking members watching over you. Nobody told you that this was a bad idea, to engage in this and not have something?” he said. “You’re gonna engage in a conversation about writing music, and delivering music, with me? And not have anything to put forth on the table?”
“Given the circumstances, it felt right to just remind people what it is that I do […] in case your opinions were wavering at any point.”
Yikes. Just a cautionary tale not to come for the 6 God without a few ether-esque tracks mixed, mastered and ready to go.
And then there’s the controversy that started it all: the idea that Drake used a ghostwriter for several verses on the mixtape he dropped earlier this year, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.
Drake doesn’t shy away from the idea that, yes, he does collaborate with writers every now and then. He made the argument that making music is a “collaborative” experience. He also doesn’t mind being the scapegoat for a discussion about ghostwriting in hip-hop and suggests that it’s a practice that’s been happening ever since the art form was created.
“If I have to be the vessel for this conversation to be brought up—you know, God forbid we start talking about writing and references and who takes what from where—I’m OK with it being me,” Drake said.
“It’s just, music at times can be a collaborative process, you know? Who came up with this, who came up with that—for me, it’s like, I know that it takes me to execute every single thing that I’ve done up until this point. And I’m not ashamed.”
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Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.
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