Though the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar may have resulted in a resounding win for K. Dot, the Compton rapper’s former Black Hippy groupmate Ab-Soul thinks there’s still a way for Drizzy to get back in the public’s good graces.
Sharing his thoughts in a series of tweets on X on Tuesday, Soul said that the way for Drake to redeem himself, should he choose to do so, is to tap into his true MC abilities.
“If Drake is the MC I imagine he can be. Redemption is not off the table. Key word ‘MC.’ But b4 my rant gets out of context. He could never Fucc wit da Gang’Nem on sum rap shyt. That was Never a question,”[sic] Soul said in part. He later added: “We could still ‘potentially’ match ‘artistry.’ (Removing my obvious personal/educated bias). If this is taken as an antic of any sort and not ISM. Well… get off if you mad then. Dead homies. God Bless.”
Rap Radar cohost Brian “B. Dot” Miller chimed in, claiming that Soul’s message was “disturbing,” citing the disrespect of Drake’s skillset and his success. His posts began a conversation with Terence “Punch” Henderson, president of Top Dawg Entertainment, the label that currently houses Ab-Soul and previously had Kendrick Lamar.
“It’s condescending! Folks act like Drake is a diss away from selling CDs in Times Square,” B. Dot wrote on X/Twitter. To which Punch said back: “Folks?! Nigga that’s AB-Soul! lol. It’s not too many that want to match wits with Soulo. Condescending ha!”
After B. Dot doubled down, saying that Soul gave Drake a backhanded compliment and claimed that the “rap game caught amnesia the past two months,” Punch retorted: “Yea the rap game did catch amnesia… then it remembered very quickly.”
Whether or not Drake will regain his spot atop hip-hop remains to be seen. But if we’re judging off the way people are blasting “Not Like Us” at the highest volume level every three hours it seems — it may not be in “God’s Plan” for Drake to sit on that throne for awhile.