Two weeks have passed since the final round of Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s rap feud played out before millions of Hip Hop fans, and yet the back and forth remains a popular topic of discussion. Among those who pressed play on the combined nine diss tracks released by each of the chart-toppers was T.I.
The “King of the South” said it was literally a spectacle that no one could miss, considering it made major news headlines and trended across social media platforms. It was especially prominent on May 3 and 4 when Lamar unleashed back-to-back tracks “meet the grahams” and “Not Like Us” as scathing responses to the 6 God.
When T.I. appeared on “Big Boy’s Neighborhood,” he had this to say about the lyrical melee: “I mean, I just appreciate the skillsets and the presentation; you know the presentation of art. I try to take it all with a grain of salt. Can’t nothing, all this s**t they saying can’t be true. You know what I’m saying? It got to be some embellishment of some, you know, of some ambiguous, you know, nature… but I think it can’t all be true, but I'm just mostly listening for the double entendres, quadruple entendres, you know, and the metaphors and just the skill in which they present their art.”
Fans who were enthralled by the rap battle widely considered it to be a much-needed jolt of competition that Hip Hop has been missing. The “Bring Em Out” artist elaborated on his perspective. “I think it’s good for the game,” said T.I., before commenting in the same breath that the war of words has been a disruption for some peers. “I will say this, they done kinda f**ked it up for some other people who were planning to drop, you know what I’m saying, in this period. I think the people were like, ‘D**n, I was gon’ drop but, you know, let me just see this through.’”
In the end, however, the three-time Grammy Award-winner noted that the heated booth sessions were worthwhile because “it all stimulates the attention of this thing that we do, what we know and love so much. So, I think that any time you got two giants in a field that are worthy opponents, you know that can match wits with one another, I feel like it’s gon’ be good for the game.”
Peep the full interview below.