Yasiin Bey – formerly known as Mos Def – has described Drake’s work as “shopping” music and argued that the Canadian artist is pop and not hip-hop.
Notably, Drake released his most recent album, For All the Dogs, on October 5th 2023. Although it received mixed reviews, it was a commercial success and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. However, shortly after it arrived, Drake revealed that he would be taking a break from music to concentrate on his health.
In a new appearance on the fashion podcast, The Cutting Room Floor, Bey, a hip-hop legend, discussed the quality of Drake’s work, and his response has since gone viral.
Moving into the segment, the host and designer, Recho Omondi, asked the Black on Both Sides rapper whether he thought Drake was hip-hop, to which he quietly sighed: “Why are you doing this to me?”
Continuing, Bey explained: “Drake is pop to me, in the sense like, if I was in Target in Houston and I heard a Drake song… it feels like a lot of his music is compatible with shopping. Or shopping with an edge in certain instances… It’s likable.”
He continued: “What happens when this thing collapses? What happens when the columns start buckling? Are we not in some early stage of that, at this present hour? Are we seeing the collapse of the empire? Buying and selling, where’s the message that I can use? What’s in it for your audience apart from banging the pom-poms?”
Watch Yasiin Bey discuss Drake below.
