In the latest episode of LeBron Jame’s The Shop, the Basketballer welcomed Drake and discussed a wide range of issues, including the rappers feud with G.O.O.D Music and his relationship with the mother of his son as well as his duty as a writer.
Drake said he talked about his son and the challenges he was having with the mother of his son with Kanye West after both rappers bonded in the studio – at least that was what Drake thought at the time, only for him to see. He said he even showed him the picture of his son.
“I’m in Wyoming, I play him “March 14.” I send him a picture of my son,”
“I tell him I’m having trouble with my son’s mother. We had a conversation.”
“I wake up, and all these dates are out. Then the next two days, whatever, I wake up now to this text from him, passive like, ‘Yo, I love you brother,'”
He now feels Kanye was only using him for his own personal gain.
“‘Lift Yourself’ comes out with him just talking nonsense. Oh this guy’s trolling me. This was like a manipulative, like, ‘I wanna break you’ thing. So I said alright. I’m gonna go back to distancing myself again. I know what this is. Then, the first album drops. And of course there’s a diss song toward me that you produced, that’s talking about writing? I was just there with you as friends helping you, and now you’re dissing me. So I’m like, man, this is dark.”
“I ended up linking with Ye, and he sold me on this whole speech of like, ‘I’m in a great place, I’m making money, and I’m a father, and I wanna be Quincy Jones and help you, but in order to do that, you’ve gotta be transparent with me. And you gotta play me your music, and you gotta tell me when you’re dropping. And I know you don’t like to do things like that,'” Drake recalled. “And so I was in the studio, guess we all kind of felt a genuine vibe from it. So I play him my music, and I told him when I was dropping.”
“He played me ‘Lift Yourself’ and he was like, ‘Yo, you can have this if you want.’ And I was hype. I started writing to it. And then he was like, ‘Yo, you gotta come to Wyoming.’ So Wyoming happened,” he explained. “And then (producer Noah “40” Shebib) went to Wyoming early, and he was like, ‘Man, I’m here a day early, man. Something’s off.’ He’s like, ‘This guy is working on an album.’ And I was like, ‘For real? He just told me he wanted to work on, like he just told me he wanted to give me beats.'”
“And he said he wasn’t dropping until like October, November, something like that. And I’m like, ‘It’s all good, let’s just go, and let’s just see what it’s about.’ So I went and ended up pretty much spending the majority of my time working on his music, just trying to like cook up ideas for him.”
About his beef with Pusha T, the Toronto born rapper said he made a track that was ready for release but changed his mind at the last moment because he doesn’t want to be remembered for the diss.
“I got home and I just listened back to it, and I was like, man, this is not something I ever wanna be remembered for,” he said. “This is not even a place that I necessarily want to go. And to all the people who enjoy that, I tip my hat to you. By the way, hell of a chess move. The song, I thought it was trash. But the chess move was genius. Back against the wall. I either go all the way filthy or I fall back and I have this sort of chink in my armor for the rest of time to a rap purist. Which is fine, I can live with that. I would much rather live with that than the things that I was about to… the research I did, the things that I was gonna say, and the places that I was gonna go. Not only for him, but the other guy too.”
And on why he felt the Pusha T song crossed the limit of what was acceptable in a diss track, Drake said he was particularly hurt by the mention of his friend who had MS.
“People love to say, like rap purists and people who just love confrontation, they love to say, ‘Aye there’s no rules in this shit.’ But there are fucking rules in this shit,” he said. “And I’m gonna tell you something: It’s like, I knew something was gonna come up about my kid. They had to add the deadbeat thing to make it more appealing, which is fine. I understand that. Even that, I was like, OK. The mom and dad thing, whatever. You don’t even know my family. But I’mma tell you, wishing death on my friend that has MS… I study rap battles for a living. Now when you mention defenseless people who are sick in the hospital, that passed away, that really sent me to a place where I just believed then, and believe now, that there’s just a price that you have to pay for that. It’s over. You’re gonna get… someone’s gonna fucking punch you in the fucking face. The shit’s done, the event’s over. I wanted to do other things. I didn’t wanna further your reputation or your career by rapping back at you and having this exchange. And that was it for me.”
He also talked about his relationship with Sophie Brussaux, the mother of his son and why he is trying to do his best and not repeat the same mistakes his parents made.
“I do wanna be able to explain to my son what happened, but I don’t have any desire to not love his mother. Or I don’t ever want the world to be angry at his mother. We found ourselves in a situation, and we are both equally responsible. And now I’m just really excited to be a great father. I have a son, he’s a beautiful boy,” he said “No matter what happens, I have an unconditional love for the mother of my child because I want him to love his mother and I have to project that energy. But I didn’t come from that. I came from my mother being like, ‘Nah, your dad is this.’ But one thing my dad would never speak ill of my mother ever, ever, ever. And my mother is the nicest, kindest, sweetest woman, but she’s a woman scorned, and a woman who is exhausted.”
