Stephen A Smith calls out Drake over Kendrick Lamar legal drama: “That ain’t what hip-hop is”
Stephen A. Smith is claiming that Drake is upset with his coverage of the whole Kendrick Lamar feud. The sports television personality has discussed their beef on The Stephen A Smith Show in the past, but during the latest episode, he called out Drizzy directly.
Speaking into the camera, Smith targeted Drake for being “sensitive” and “in his feelings” following his battle with Kendrick Lamar, before accusing him of hiding from the public.
“Don’t ask me how, but I know that he has seen this show,” he began. “And I know that he has seen some of the things that I have said about him on this show. This is Drake, y’all know this is Drake, right? We ain’t seen him in a while, that’s why I’m saying.”
Smith, who reiterated his innocence regarding speaking badly about Drake, went on to claim that ‘Not Like Us’ was the unanimous winner out of their diss tracks that went back and forth.
“To Drake, the artist extraordinaire,” he said. “I did not say or echo a single negative thing about you. You’re a phenomenal artist, you’re big time. What I said was, fact: ‘Not Like Us’ got you. I even pointed out how the line about accusing of you of being a pedophile or ain’t nobody paying attention to that. They just think it’s lyrics, bars being dropped. He got the better of you.”
Continuing to side with Kendrick, Smith called out Drake for taking legal action in the feud, after the Toronto rapper accused Universal Music Group and Spotify of illegally boosting ‘Not Like Us’ streams. He also quietly challenged Drizzy to do something in the studio instead.
“What I’m saying is, you don’t go the lawyer route in hip-hop over something like this,” he declared. “You take it to the studio. You take it to the streets. That’s all I said. I didn’t sit up there and say, ‘You can’t answer Kendrick Lamar.’ I said, ‘You better figure out a way to do so,’ meaning you have the capability, I think, to pull it off. That’s all.”
According to Smith, “the streets” know ‘Not Like Us‘ and believe Lamar came out victorious over Drake in the lyrical battle.
“It’s not a crime for somebody to say, ‘He got you.’ He got you on that one,” he said. “‘Not Like Us’ was big time. You can get lawyers involved and talk about people engaging in bots and payola and all of this stuff to buffer and uplift his numbers, but damn it, when you go to the streets, everybody know what ‘Not Like Us’ is. And because they know what ‘Not Like Us’ is and who did it.”