Pusha-T’s second diss of Drake takes feud to new levels, with some calling it a low blow
Rap beefs have long become a cultural staple of hip-hop, from Tupac vs. Biggie, Jay Z vs. Nas, to Remy Ma vs. Nicki Minaj. The latest rap beef to capture hip-hop fans actually erupted a decade ago, when both rappers Pusha-T and Drake taking occasional shots at each other due to several incidents with their competing labels and mentors from 2006-2017.
The feud was reignited when Pusha-T released his diss track “Infrared” from his latest album Daytona, produced by Kanye West. Drake quickly responded with “Duppy Freestyle” in which he took shots at West too.
Drake raps, “What do you really think of the n—a that’s makin’ your beats?/ I’ve done things for him I thought that he never would need/ Father had to stretch his hands out and get it from me/ I pop style for 30 hours, then let him repeat.”
Now Pusha-T has furthered the social media firestorm with the release of a second diss, a response to Drake titled “The Story of Adidon.” The track utilizes Jay Z’z beats from his 2017 racially charged song, “The Story of O.J,” and throughout it Pusha-T takes shots at Drake’s biracial identity (“Confused, always felt you weren’t black enough/Afraid to grow it ’cause your ’fro wouldn’t nap enough”), his father (“Your father walked away at 5/Hell of a dad thing”), and alleges that Drake has a son with a porn star that he doesn’t take care of.
Pusha-T raps in his song, “You are hidin’ a child, let that boy come home / Deadbeat motherf—ker playin’ border patrol/Adonis is your son / And he deserves more than an Adidas press run, that’s real / Love that baby, respect that girl / Forget she’s a porn star, let her be your world.”
The Memphis rapper also takes a shot at frequent Drake collaborator and producer OVO 40 who has multiple sclerosis, rapping, ““OVO 40, hunched over like he 80, tick, tick, tick How much time he got? That man is sick, sick, sick.”
Additionally, the song’s image cover is an old picture of Drake with Blackface.
In response to the picture of Drake in Blackface, the Canadian rapper released a statement via Instagram.
Many hip-hop fans are excited to witness the long-awaited, fiery rap feud unfold after many years of slow and subtle disses. However, some have pointed out how the rap feud is the latest example in hip-hop of how women are disparaged to “expose” the problematic errors of men, and making someone’s serious disease a punchline is an example of ableism. Some share that while rap battling and dissing is an important culture to hip-hop, it should not use women as the target of misogynistic disses for the sake of two men dueling.