Pusha T is a true fan of Hip Hop so it only makes sense that he gave his contemporary Kendrick Lamar his props during “Saint Sessions Live” at Miami Art Week. The six-time Grammy-nominated hitmaker was on hand for the Saturday (Dec. 7) discussion where Lamar and Drake’s summer rap feud was among the hot topics that came up.
As he has previously stated, the “If You Know You Know” artist reiterated that Lamar was “1,000%” the winner of the lyrical sparring match. “I think that Kendrick is a lyricist and a lyricist that talks to your soul,” Pusha told journalist Ari Melber about his peer’s cutting edge. “Like, you can be clever … you can say cute things, you can do things in cadences, and so on and so forth, right, but the truth really hurts, and the truth, I mean, the truth like cuts deep,” said the It’s Almost Dry rapper.
He further shared, “I think what Kendrick was doing was really talking to his soul. I believe that, and I believe that’s, you know, that would cause you to tap out, that’ll cause you to sue, that’ll cause you to do a lot of things. It’s crazy.”
In late November, Drake filed two lawsuits, the first accusing Universal Music Group and Spotify of employing an illegal scheme to boost the streams and popularity of Lamar’s viral anthem “Not Like Us.” A day later, he filed a complaint against UMG and iHeartRadio for defamation. He argues that the label knew the song’s lyrics included allusions to him and OVO crew members being pedophiles and sex offenders.
As for the Compton native name dropping the Clipse frontman on “Euphoria,” he had this to say: “I guess he was just telling him, you know, he needed to address me before he comes back and try to go at him.” On the track, Lamar rapped, “Yeah, Cole and Aubrey know I’m a selfish n**ga, the crown is heavy/ I pray they my real friends, if not, I’m YNW Melly/ I don’t like you poppin’ s**t at Pharrell, for him, I inherit the beef/ Yeah, f**k all that pushin’ P, let me see you push a T/ You better off spinnin’ again on him, you think about pushin’ me?/ He’s Terrence Thornton, I’m Terence Crawford, yeah, I’m whoopin’ feet.”
Melber suggested that the Pulitzer Prize winner likely referenced Pusha as the “gold standard” when going bar for bar with Drake after their 2018 exchange of diss tracks. The Virginia native was declared the winner after he released “The Story of Adidon,” which never received a rebuttal from his rap foe. Instead, The Boy addressed the bigger claim on the record about fathering a child on his song, “Emotionless,” which appears on his project Scorpion that was released a month later.
“I think it was a great time for me. That whole battle was an awesome time. I think that him [Lamar] being a fan of Hip Hop, he saw it as that,” he said. Adding, “Well, I know he did, that’s my guy. But I know he saw it as that, and I think that he knows where we stand in like the pureness of this rap s**t. And sometimes it’s surprising how the world takes to things, you know what I’m saying. Like, the guy who’s the purist that they usually [are] never the guys who get to hold a trophy at the end. 'Adidon’ was just one of those times.”
Despite saying that it was time to watch the party end, Lamar is only getting started. He will perform at the Super Bowl in February, and in April he will hit the road with SZA when they co-headline the “Grand National Tour.”