The 2011 song Drake quietly dissed Big Sean and Kanye West on
With the release of his second album Take Care, Drake solidified his status as a rap superstar in 2011, going straight to number one in the charts, receiving praise from the critics, and, ultimately, securing his first ever Grammy Award. Things were only on the up for him, but, even so, there were little flashes of negativity to be found on the record.
From the very beginning of Take Care, Drake, who has never been shy of getting embroiled in a beef, seems to be casting shade over some of his contemporaries. The opening song, ‘Over My Dead Body,’ contains the line, “Man, all of your flows bore me, paint dryin’,” which some people have presumed was a sly dig at Big Sean.
Drake has actually credited Sean with coming up with some interesting flows in the past, even admitting to borrowing one for himself. But, that praise notwithstanding, there is a feeling that the “boring flow” line from ‘Over My Dead Body’ was aimed at Sean. There were certainly signs to suggest that was the case.
A few times in the track, Drake delivers the word “boy” in a way that evokes Big Sean’s penchant for using the term in his own verses. “Yeah, don’t make me take your life apart, boy,” Drake raps. “You and whoever the fuck gave you your start, boy.”
The person who gave Big Sean his start in the music business was Kanye West, of course, which made it seem like Drake was taking a pop at him, too. While Drake and Big Sean’s relationship has tended to seem amicable, generally speaking, his feelings towards Ye have been evidently much more tense, despite their occasional collaborations through the years.
Drake and Ye’s beef really blew up around 2018, when Kanye’s GOOD Music collaborator Pusha T released ‘The Story of Adidon,’ which revealed to the world that Drake had a secret son and also accused him of exploiting Black culture for the sake of his own success. Drake and Ye have been going at each other, on and off, ever since then.
But Drake and Big Sean have generally seemed okay with each other. In response to the rumours that Drake had been dissing him on Take Care, Sean was very relaxed about things and insisted to XXL that there “ain’t no beef” between them. He even claimed that Drake was one of favourite artists.
“I ain’t got nothing against the guy,” he insisted. “I respect his work. No problems at all.”
Both Drake and Ye would later appear on Sean’s song ‘Blessings,’ which indicated that Sean was serious when he said he respected his Canadian counterpart. Even though it seemed like Drake had taken aim at him a little bit, Sean took it in a fine spirit.