21 Savage said he believed Drake came through his feud with Kendrick Lamar relatively unscathed, but still revealed he told the Toronto rapper not to throw himself into the infamous rap battle.
Near the end of a lengthy interview on the Perspektives With Bank podcast, 21 Savage said he told Drake “not to do all that shit” and “leave that shit alone” as the feud was getting underway. “But goddamn,” Savage added of his Her Loss collaborator, “he felt like he was challenged lyrically, so he wanted to respond.”
The rapper went on to recall a conversation he had with Drake, likely after Lamar’s first foray into the feud on Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That.” 21 Savage said he told Drake, “You finna go into a battle that you can’t win. There’s no way you can win.”
21 Savage explained that he meant there were some situations where, “even if you win, you still don’t win.” He noted that both Lamar and Drake dropped good songs during the feud, before stating, “The only difference is, when you’re at the top… where does winning put you? You can’t go Number One-Point-One. So how the fuck could you win, anyway?”
While Lamar was widely perceived as the victor of the battle thanks to the mammoth success of “Not Like Us,” 21 Savage said he didn’t concern himself with who won and who lost. Asked if Drake “took a hit” in the feud, though, Savage replied, “Nah,” noting Drake is still one of the top-streamed artists. “I feel like he took an internet hit,” he said. “But then it be like: Damn, did you take an internet hit? Because streaming, you gotta go on the internet to stream.”
As for his own music, 21 Savage released his newest album, What Happened to the Streets?, today (Dec. 12). The LP marks his fourth and follows last year’s American Dream. What Happened to the Streets? Features collaborations with Latto, GloRilla, G Herbo, Lil Baby, and, yes, Drake.
