On Monday (Jan. 15), Drake broke his silence after Yasiin Bey made eyebrow-raising comments about the Toronto star’s status in Hip Hop. Taking to Instagram Stories, the OVO talent shared a throwback video of Method Man explaining his perspective on the art form.
“Hip Hop is a culture. It’s a way of life, the way you dress, the way you talk, the way you walk. It’s the breakdancing, rhymes, stage shows, DJ, the mixing, the scratching, the wordplay. That’s Hip Hop,” the Wu-Tang Clan legend said in the clip. “The staircase emcee, know what I’m saying? House parties, Glock parties, rec room parties, all that is Hip Hop.”
In addition to Meth’s take, Drake also added a humorous line of his own — one that directly referred to one of Bey’s most notable Black On Both Sides standouts. “What Umi say again? Lemme shine my light, king. Don’t change up now,” he wrote before adding a laughing emoji.
As REVOLT previously reported, Bey was asked about Drake’s position within the culture during an interview with “The Cutting Room Floor” podcast. “Drake is pop to me. In the sense like, if I was in Target in Houston and I heard a Drake song, it feels like a lot of his music is compatible with shopping. Or shopping with an edge, in certain instances,” the Black Star emcee explained before expanding into a humorous retail mall analogy.
“What happens when this thing collapses? What happens when the columns start buckling?” the man formerly known as Mos Def added on a more serious note. “Are we not in some early stage of that at this present hour? Are we seeing, like, the collapse of the empire? Buying and selling — where’s the message that I can use? You know, what’s in it for your audience apart from, like, banging the pom-poms?”