2006: Clipse vs. Lil Wayne In 2006, Lil Wayne was the cover star of Vibe magazine’s April issue, clad in the popular streetwear brand BAPE, which at the time grew in popularity thanks to Pharrell Williams and was worn a lot by Clipse. The Virginia-bred duo wasn’t too fond of Wayne wearing the brand and released “Mr. Me Too” -- produced by Pharrell -- in which No Malice rapped, “Wanna know the time? Better clock us/ N---as bite the style from the shoes to the watches.” That same year, Wayne sat down for an interview with Complex and addressed Clipse’s subliminal diss. “You talking to the best. Talk to me like you’re talking to the best. I don’t see no f--kin’ Clipse. Come on man,” Wayne said. “Weezy, man. They had to do a song with us to get hot, B. 'What Happened to That Boy?' C’mon, B.” Wayne even called out Pharrell, saying, “Who the f--k is Pharrell? Do you really respect him? That n---a wore BAPEs and y’all thought he was weird. I wore it and y’all thought it was hot.” 2011: Pusha unleashes "Don't F--k With Me" Pusha didn't directly call anybody out on "Don't F--k With Me," but Pusha freestyled over Drake's "Dreams Money Can Buy" beat and dished out a few lines that hinted at Drake being his target. "Rappers on their sophomores, actin' like they boss lords/ Fame such a funny thing for sure/ When n---as start believing all them encores," Pusha rapped, possibly referring to Drake, whose sophomore album Take Care dropped in November 2011. 2012: Pusha returns with "Exodus 23:1" Pusha made sure there was no room for confusion about who he was dissing on "Exodus 23:1," as he rapped, "Contract all f--ked up/ I guess that means you all f--ked up/ You signed to one n---a that signed to another n---a/ That's signed to three n---as, now that's bad luck." The shot was likely directed at Drake again, who was signed to Lil Wayne's Young Money imprint, a subsidiary of Cash Money Records, which operates under Universal Music Group. Wayne continued to make it clear he's no fan of Pusha, tweeting, "Fuk pusha t and anybody that love em." 2013: Drake hits back with "Tuscan Leather" Since signing to Young Money in 2009, Drake's loyalty to Lil Wayne has never wavered. On "Tuscan Leather," Drizzy dished out subliminal messages to anyone (ahem, Pusha) who spoke badly about his YMCMB boss. "I'm just as famous as my mentor/ But that's still the boss, don't get sent for/ Get hype on tracks and jump in front of a bullet you wasn't meant for," he rapped at one point, and followed up with the line, "Bench players talkin' like starters, I hate it." 2016: Pusha keeps the feud going with "H.G.T.V Freestyle" Toward the end of Pusha's hookless attack on "H.G.T.V Freestyle," the rapper diverted his attention to his longtime rival, Drake, and questioned the Toronto artist's pen game. "It's too far gone when the realest ain't real/ I walk amongst the clouds so your ceilings ain't real/ These n---as Call of Duty 'cause their killings ain't real/ With a questionable pen so the feelin' ain't real," Pusha said, possibly referencing Drake's 2009 mixtape So Far Gone and reigniting claims that Drake uses a ghostwriter for his raps. 2017: Drake questions Pusha's street credibility on "Two Birds, One Stone" In 2017, Drake and Pusha's beef heated up some more. When Drizzy unleashed his "playlist" More Life, Drake called out Pusha on "Two Birds, One Stone" and claimed the rapper is living a false life. "But really it's you with all the drug dealer stories/ That's gotta stop, though/ You made a couple chops and now you think you Chapo," Drake said. He continued: "You middle man in this s--t, boy, you was never them guys/ I can tell, 'cause I look most of you dead in your eyes/ And you'll be tryna sell that story for the rest of your lives." The other "bird" Drake addressed in the song was Kid Cudi, who accused rappers of having multiple writers and name-dropped Kanye West and Drake in his tweets. "Everyone thinks they're soooo great. Talkin top 5 and be having 30 people write songs for them," he wrote in one tweet. Later in his rant, Cudi wrote, "My tweets apply to who they apply. Ye, Drake, whoever. These n---as dont give a f--k about me. And they aint f--kin' with me." May 2018: Pusha reignites the Drake feud with "Infrared"; Drake responds Tensions began to rise between Pusha and Drake after Pusha unleashed his new album Daytona, which was produced entirely by Kanye West. On the album's closing track, "Infrared," Pusha continued to question Drake's lyrical abilities, rapping, "It was written like Nas but it came from Quentin," referring to Quentin Miller, a rapper who Pusha believes has been writing for Drake behind the scenes. Naturally, social media went up in flames after hearing Pusha's diss, causing Drake to come out of "album mode" to address Push. When it was Drake's time to fire his own shots, Drake reminded Pusha that Kanye once called the "God's Plan" rapper to help write "Father Stretch My Hands" and "30 Hours" from West's The Life of Pablo album. Drizzy even hinted that he may have worked on Kanye's upcoming album as well. "What do you really think of the n---a that's makin' your beats?/ I've done things for him I thought that he never would need/ Father had to stretch his hands out and get it from me/ I pop style for 30 hours, then let him repeat," Drake rapped, adding, "I just left from over by y'all puttin' pen to the sheets/ Tired of sittin' quiet and helpin' my enemies eat." Drake continued to send shots at Pusha and likened a faded autograph from an old Pusha T-signed microphone to Pusha's career. "I had a microphone of yours, but then the signature faded/ I think that pretty much resembles what's been happenin' lately," Drizzy continued. Drake ended his attack by requesting to be paid from Pusha and Kanye for the publicity. Pusha retweeted Drake's song and wrote, "Send the invoice for the extra 20..." Without hesitation, Drake posted a draft of an invoice requesting $100,000 from the G.O.O.D. Music team for "promotional assistance and career reviving" and tagged Pusha in the post on Instagram. You’re welcome. -- A post shared by champagnepapi (@champagnepapi) on May 25, 2018 at 6:08pm PDT October 2018: Drake heads to The Shop and openly discusses feud with Kanye West and Pusha T for the first time Drake paid a visit to LeBron James' HBO show The Shop to discuss his tiff with Kanye West and Pusha T. During the open forum, Drizzy broke down the rules to battle rap and why certain things should be kept off-limits. "I knew something was gonna come up about my kid. They had to add the deadbeat dad thing to make it more appealing," Drake said when speaking on Pusha T's scathing "The Story of Adidon" diss. He further added how his time in Wyoming with West gave G.O.O.D. Music the necessary ammo needed to rattle the Toronto MC. "I'm in Wyoming. I play him 'March 14.' I send him a picture of my son. I tell him I'm having trouble with my son's mother," he said when explaining his initial thought process in revealing his son on Scorpion's outro track. Shortly after Drake's appearance on The Shop, Pusha T paid a visit to The Joe Budden Podcast, where he refuted the claims made by the OVO captain. Though Drake blamed Kanye for leaking information out about his son, Pusha revealed that the true culprit behind the fiasco was Drake's friend and producer, Noah "40" Shebib. "The information came from 40. It didn’t come from Kanye, at all. 40 is sleeping with a woman, who he talks to her daily. Five, six hours a day and ultimately speaks about how he's disgruntled about certain things, notoriety and things involving Drake and his career, and so on and so forth," the G.O.O.D. Music president said.<doc-sep>It feels like forever ago since Drake and Pusha T brought their long-simmering rap beef to a boil, resulting in some of the most high profile diss tracks that have come out in recent years. While seemingly everyone has given their take on the situation, and the beef appears to have come to an end (at least for now), one of Pusha T's earliest collaborators has only just spoke his mind. Chad Hugo, who produced most of Clipse's hits as The Neptunes alongside Pharrell Williams, isn't as fond of the spotlight as his partner. While he recently made a return to the spotlight for N.E.R.D. 's lastest album, No One Ever Really Dies, he still rarely grants interviews. However, he did opt to speak to Pigeons & Planes, and he gave his insight of Pusha's rap beef. "Well, somebody asked me about that and I said it’s good for the industry. I don’t know," Hugo said. "It’s interesting how Pusha would come for him like that with that song. When I was a kid there were battles like Roxanne Roxanne and KRS and all those battles, but they’re definitely redefining the rap battle." While Pusha T's "The Story of Adidon" was notable for its severity in revealing Drake's secrets, it certainly isn't the first diss track to go for the gut shot. What it does do, however, is reflect Pusha's "warrior attitude." "Pusha, he’s always been inspiring. People don’t know this, but he used to take taekwondo," Hugo continued. "When he’d write his rhymes back at my parents' house when we were still trying to make it, he would be stretching like Steven Seagal, Jean Claude Van Damme, that warrior attitude. I don’t know if that’s been instilled with him all this time, but it's a different kind of thing to be like, 'Let me show you my fighting skills.'"<doc-sep>Always listen to your mother. Perhaps that's the advice that Drake and Pusha-T should both keep in mind–at least when it comes to what Drake's mother, Sandi Graham, has to say about their years-long feud that recently started up again. A TMZ reporter asked Graham this week what she thought about her son's feud with rapper Pusha-T, and she agreed that it needs to be over because "they're too grown up for that." The reporter then went on to ask if she was proud that Drake didn't respond to Pusha-T's diss track. "I believe he always makes the best decisions in the end," she said of her son. In fact, Drake may have made the "best decision" already, considering that he hasn't responded to that diss track Pusha-T released on May 29. In the track, The Story of Adidon, Pusha had some things to say about Drake's personal life, alleging that he has a son he doesn't recognize. The song was the latest exchange after years of the rappers going after one another in their tracks. And it could be the last, at least for now. Pusha-T acknowledged that the feud seems to be finished in an interview with Vanity Fair from June 6. "These conversations have been had and, to my knowledge, it's all over. It's all over with," he said. He also admitted that he didn't know "what was lost or what was gained" from the feud. It's possible that Drake acknowledged the end of the feud as well, with the release of his music video for I'm Upset on June 13. While everyone was waiting to see how he would respond to The Story of Adidon, he instead delivered a dose of nostalgia. The video featured a reunion of the Degrassi: The Next Generation cast, of which he was a cast member in his younger, acting days. Drake's new album, Scorpion, drops on June 29, and it is entirely possible that it could include a track that reignites the feud (yet again). However, until then, it seems that this rap feud is over. Both Drake and Pusha-T seem to be acting like the adults that Sandi Graham said they are.<doc-sep>
A couple summers ago, it was revealed that the McDonald’s jingle—that heavenly melody and profoundly warm declaration (“I’m lovin’ it”)—was written by Pusha-T, one of the hardest rappers in the game, one who is to cocaine slinging what Henry Miller was to brazen screwing. And the Internet, understandably, lost its collective mind. But I’m here to tell you, if you spend a June evening in a Tribeca photo studio with Pusha-T, that fact ceases to be strange. Actually, what becomes strange is that Pusha-T is one of the hardest rappers in the game at all. When Pusha, whose birth name is Terrence Thornton, speaks, his eyes open wide and his thin, signature braids sometimes bob. His inflection is playful, sincere, sweet even. At 41, he’s a well-worn veteran of both the streets and hip-hop, and yet there’s something youthful and innocent about him. It’s there when he tells GQ that, no matter how many times TSA confiscates his Aveeno face wash, he’ll always buy more, because it’s “essential.” Or when he describes the simple joy that can be found in a black Uniqlo t-shirt. But then, no one in the room has dared question Pusha’s street bona fides, or mention his fiancee. Do those things, and, as Drake just learned, he’s liable to clear his throat (Yuchhh) and wield a series of verses like razor-sharp machetes (“Surgical summer with it—snip, snip, snip” seems like more than a lyric; it’s an ethos). When we talk, on the heels of him figuratively putting Jimmy back in a wheelchair, Pusha is a bit nostalgic. Nostalgic for the days when nimble ruthlessness was met with pure admiration. When bars mattered more. When there was no social media to take issue with the insensitivity of, say, asking how long a fellow rapper’s sick best friend has to live. That it seems to be over—both the battle and an era—produces a resigned sigh. But Pusha has no plans to call it quits. Rather, he’s hell-bent on becoming the model for aging gracefully in hip-hop. And don’t be fooled by his affable demeanor; Pusha-T is not to be reckoned with. GQ: I keep hearing Daytona blasting out of car windows as I walk around the city. I realized that this is the first album of yours that hasn't been released in fall or winter. So I was wondering if it was meant to be summer music. Pusha-T: There was no intention of it being summer music. I definitely was trying to make car music. I call it "pull-up-and-park music." Pull up at the store, pull up on the corner, park, blast the shit, roll the windows down, everybody circling around the car. That's what it was meant for. Daytona was the first in a series of five G.O.O.D. Music albums coming out, week after week after week. I keep thinking about a baseball lineup, where each artist plays a different role. Do you guys think about it in those terms at all? Ye said that to me the other day. He actually said, "We all play our role so well, and that's how a team wins." He said, "I believe that everybody's going to execute, which is going to make the whole squad win." Was there intention behind the order of who went when? Ye definitely wanted my album to go first. Production-wise, he said he felt like my album set the tone, and it was scary enough that people would know from that that this was going to be our run. As the president of G.O.O.D. Music, I imagine you're constantly on the lookout for what's next. How has that role impacted your own music? It hasn't. I feel like my music is something I'm certain no one else in the game does. Lyrically, I don't think there's anyone in the game who articulates the way that I do. I feel like when me and Ye are together, rhymes on top of production, you're getting the highest quality of street music that you can get. So when I hear new stuff, I like it, I admire it, I see the potential in it. But it never makes me want to do it. Because I just feel like what I do is what I do.