Drake has given further details on his feud with Kanye West and revealed why he never responded to Pusha T’s notorious diss track.
The two rappers – among the biggest names in popular music – have been involved in a long-running dispute which led last month to West having to deny rumours his wife Kim Kardashian West had had an affair with Drake.
Drake appeared on Friday night’s episode of HBO’s The Shop and spoke to basketball star LeBron James as well as businessman Maverick Carter.
The trio discussed Drake’s feud with West and his frequent collaborator Pusha T, which resurfaced over the summer following the release of a diss track on the latter’s album.
Drake told how he was working on his latest record, Scorpion, when West invited him to Wyoming and convinced him to give details of his upcoming work.
The In My Feelings star obliged and said West offered him the song Lift Yourself – a track he later released himself. Drake claimed he was unaware West too was working on an album and alleged he was used by his rival to come up with ideas for the record.
Drake also told West about his then secret son. When Pusha T’s West-produced album arrived in May, it contained the track Infrared, which alleged Drake did not write his own songs.
Drake said he felt West’s behaviour was “dark” and responded with a diss track of his own. This led to Pusha T releasing The Story Of Adidon, which revealed Drake’s son.
Drake was criticised in the hip-hop world for not responding but has now revealed he had a track ready to go but decided not to release it.
He said: “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. This is not even a place that I necessarily want to go.”
Drake applauded Pusha T on his song, calling it a “hell of a chess move” that left him with the choices of “going all the way filthy” or appearing weak in the eyes of “rap purists”.
He added: “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.”