Recently two of rap’s biggest names, Jay Z and Drake, have been locked in a war of words. The feud began when Drake, speaking to Rolling Stone, made a jab at Jay Z’s lyrical allusions to the art world. (“It’s like Hov can’t drop bars these days without at least four art references!”) Months later, Jay Z attempted a knockout punch in his “We Made It” freestyle. Drake threw more shots at his one-time mentor in his “Draft Day” freestyle and then again in an oddball comment made during the NBA playoffs: “Jay Z’s somewhere eating a fondue plate.”
It appears the two are still at it. In a DJ Khaled song released last night, “They Don’t Love You No More,” Jay Z opens with a hard-hitting voiceover saying, “People look at you strange, saying you changed/ Like you worked that hard to stay the same.” Meek Mill, French Montana, and Rick Ross interrupt that intensity with mediocre verses, but the song later gives Jay Z the spotlight. Adding to Drake’s “Draft Day” sports narrative, Jay Z starts off by arguing the NCAA should pay its student-athletes. He then, presumably, mocks Drake, saying, “Haters wanna ball, let me tighten up my draw string/ Wrong sport, boy, you know you’re soft as a lacrosse team.”
There’s something amusing about Jay Z and Drake managng to invoke both “fondue” and “lacrosse” in their rap beef, but if they’re going to keep this going we’d love to see them up the ante with some new vocabulary words.
Update, April 29, 2014: In response to Jay Z’s suggestion that lacrosse is “soft,” Major League Lacrosse has issued a statement to MTV saying,”Mr. Carter would not last one minute on a lacrosse field during a match, and he is more than welcome to come to any of our games and try.”
