Key Takeaways
- A$AP Rocky joked he would fight Drake “bare knuckles like the Irish” in a preview of his upcoming Jason Lee interview.
- The remark comes after years of lyrical back-and-forth between the two artists across multiple songs.
- Rocky implied the tension began in 2020 after he started dating Rihanna, saying Drake began sending shots in his music.
A$AP Rocky isn’t afraid to get in the ring with Drake. On Monday (Aug. 3), in a clip from his upcoming interview with Jason Lee, the father of three responded to a question about whether he’d fight the “Shabang” rapper.
Although the exchange only takes up a few seconds of the minute-long preview — and could very well have been edited to rile up the internet — Lee asked Rocky about watching celebrity boxing before cutting right to the chase: “Would you fight Drake?” The Harlem native then answered, “Bare knuckles like the Irish.”
It could be a complete coincidence, but as many fans may already know, the self-proclaimed Iceman had a leaked track titled “Fighting Irish Freestyle” last year. Either way, Rocky’s comments got a good chunk of the internet talking, especially considering their past jabs on wax. Take a look at the clip below, then revisit the “F**kin’ Problems” collaborators’ beef.
What happened between A$AP Rocky and Drake? The Harlem rapper explains
According to Rocky, Drake “started throwing shots out of nowhere” once he got with Rihanna, with whom the Don’t Be Dumb artist now shares three children. “I just woke up and felt like he was throwing subs and s**t,” he explained. “That’s 2020, gangsta. Me and shorty was locked in. Everything was subsequent after that. That’s where all the shots started happening. That’s when I started seeing n**gas saying funny s**t.”
Of course, the subliminals turned into full-fledged jabs in 2024, when Drake entered what may be one of the streaming era’s biggest Hip Hop feuds with Kendrick Lamar. Around that time, Rocky implied that he slept with the mother of the Toronto native’s son, Adonis, on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Show of Hands.”
Drake returned the smoke on “Family Matters,” where he predicted that Rocky would have another child with RiRi before releasing his next album. Just last year, the AWGE founder delivered eyebrow-raising lines on “Stole Ya Flow,” including “First you stole my flow, so I stole yo' b**ch” and “N**gas getting BBLs, lucky we don't body shame / Throwing dirt on Rocky name, turn around and copy game.”
More recently, The Boy appeared to taunt Rocky on his ICEMAN track “Burning Bridges,” in which he rapped, “Your baby mama ain't even post your single, damn / Where she at? Yeah, where she at?”
Regardless of where the two stand — or what the internet has gathered from their songs — Drake and Rocky are two of the hottest rappers of 2026. As we’ve seen time and time again, plenty of musicians fall out only to make amends later, so hopefully a reunion isn’t completely off the table.