Key Takeaways:
- 21 Savage revealed he warned Drake not to respond to Kendrick Lamar during the two’s famous beef, calling it a no-win situation.
- He explained that even if Drake “won,” public perception would still frame it as a loss.
- The interview sheds light on how artists weigh public perception and strategy before engaging in rap beefs.
21 Savage just dropped a new album, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STREETS?, but a Thursday (Dec. 11) interview during which he spoke at length on a bevy of topics is also getting plenty of attention. The Atlanta-based rapper notably discussed Drake’s infamous beef with Kendrick Lamar.
The “Bank Account” artist sat down with host Rashad "Big Bank" Holsey, Sr’s “Perspektives With Bank” podcast on for a three-hour discussion. One of the topics generating plenty of interest is Savage’s take on Drizzy’s feud with Lamar earlier this year. Apparently, Savage cautioned him not to engage, but the Toronto native was undeterred.
“Do I think he took a hit? Nah,” Savage said. “He’s still the number one streamed n**ga this year. I feel like he took an internet hit. But then it be like, ‘Damn, did you take an internet hit?’ Because streaming, you gotta go on the internet to stream … I feel like to certain people, they might say he took a hit. But I don’t look at that s**t like that. I don’t know. I told that n**ga not to even do all that s**t anyway. I told that n**ga [to] leave that s**t alone.”
Savage said that his “Jimmy Cooks” collaborator felt like he was “challenged lyrically” and couldn’t back down. He also detailed a phone call where they discussed the situation.
“He called me one of them days or I called him,” Savage explained. “I think this was after the first song, the song with Metro and them, and I said, ‘Goddamn. You finna go into a battle that you can’t win, like, there’s no way you can win.’ No matter what, bruh. Certain situations, even if you win, you still don’t win.”
To be clear, Savage wasn’t suggesting that the 6 God had no chance at victory. Rather, even if the public consensus was that Drake won the battle, it still would have been an L.
“How can you win a battle when n**gas want you to lose it?,” Savage continued. “Even if you win, you lose. No matter what. Even if Kendrick never responded, man. If Drake just dropped songs and Kendrick never responded or nothing, he still don’t win because his position didn’t change. He was already the top n**ga.”
He added, “It’s rigged, man. Even if Drake won, he would have been the bad guy for winning.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Savage talked about fatherhood, revealed that Drake apologized to Metro Boomin multiple times, discussed the rules of snitching and much more. Watch the full interview with “Perspektives With Bank” below.