Drake hints at failed Kendrick Lamar collaboration
Drake is staying busy. After continually releasing dregs of new music, behind-the-scenes footage, and other golden nuggets for fans to enjoy, his newest outings are starting to focus more on those with whom he has recently feuded with.
The Canadian started the cryptic posts by sharing a video of himself praising Kanye West in 2013 and then proceeding to follow the controversial rapper on Instagram. However, the artist mentioned in never-before-seen footage that is getting the most attention is Kendrick Lamar.
Drake has revealed behind-the-scenes footage showing a clip of him talking to his longtime producer about Lamar. In their conversation, they not only discuss Lamar as a rapper but also touch upon a collaboration between the two.
The clip starts with Drake’s producer, Noah ’40’ Shebib, working on a beat. He plays around for a little before Drake enters the frame and starts talking about how good he thinks Kendrick Lamar will sound on it. He says, “For him, where he’s at, I know he’s gonna murder this.”
Shebib then says he has been working on the beat specifically with a Drake and Kendrick Lamar collab in mind. “When you told me Kendrick,” he said, “It just made so much sense.”
Unfortunately, the collaboration never happened, and the beat was used for the Action Bronson track ‘Actin’ Crazy’ instead. The song was released in 2013, so we know that Drake’s discussion with his producer predates that.
This could have been the first time both rappers planned on working together, given they didn’t link on a track until Lamar’s ‘Poetic Justice’ in 2012. The two also shared a track in 2013 when they rapped on A$AP Rocky’s ‘Fuckin Problems’. An elongated beef between the two wouldn’t start until later in 2013, as Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Control’ verse saw him take shots at every rapper in the game before Drake fired back with a few jabs on his song ‘The Language’.
Fans know that Drake’s footage predates 2013, but other than that, it’s difficult to assign a specific timeframe to it. Furthermore, it’s impossible to tell whether Lamar ever ended up spitting a verse on the track or if Drake ever laid bars down for it.
The only clear thing is that Drake doesn’t think the beef between himself and Lamar is over. By uploading footage onto his website of Lamar, he clearly wants to keep the conversation surrounding them both alive and isn’t willing to let the beef settle just yet.