RZA reveals his opinion on Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s talents
Wu-Tang Clan producer and frontman RZA has recently reflected on the current state of hip-hop and spoke about some of this year’s most memorable moments, most notably the Kendrick Lamar and Drake feud. Although RZA has shown love to both MCs in the past, he’s now asserted the key difference between them, which became apparent during the battle.
The Staten Island legend revealed that he believes the pair will eventually reconcile their differences but bluntly claimed that Drake made a huge mistake going up against a man of Lamar’s wit and intellect in the first place.
Over the past year, many have expressed similar views. Whether it’s Jay-Z against Nas or Nicki Minaj going at Remy Ma, popular, commercially successful rappers often believe that they can take down the best lyricists. Now, RZA has explained why Drake was never going to be able to defeat Kendrick Lamar in a battle.
The hip-hop elder unveiled that, in his opinion, Lamar’s lyrical skill is natural, whereas Drake’s is learnt. Elaborating on his point, the rapper told Complex, “First of all, Kendrick is the natural lyricist, and Drake is a trained lyricist.”
He detailed, “You could train a fighter and he could be good, then you got those natural fighters who also then go through training. So that’s a different chamber there. And while Drake got bars forever, Kendrick’s bars’ potency was stronger.”
Although the Toronto emcee insisted he’s a “war general, seasoned in preparation” on his Kendrick diss track ‘The Heart Pt. 6’, RZA fundamentally disagreed with this analysis and stated that his OVO team set him up for failure.
Explaining how Drake had never been in a situation like that with widely respected top-tier lyricist RZA explained OVO’s mistake, stating, “So the battle bar-for-bar was something that was just not good advising on Drake’s camp in the sense of just getting in that fight without really taking some more training for that.”
RZA continued, “When Kendrick wrote the letter to his son or his daughter and to his [mother], Kendrick is going to come like that.” In fact, RZA rated Lamar’s lyricism so highly that he compared him to some of his 1990s peers, stating, “Nas, Kendrick, Eminem, Raekwon, certain people are going to break your shit down to the element.”
Although Drake’s hip-hop elders have been applying tough love all year, RZA did admit that he is a powerful and formidable force in the culture and has done a lot, conceding, “Drake is a powerful artist in our culture. He helped the culture when the culture needed it. He expanded it with his melodies and he raised a generation too, and you can’t take that away from him.”