Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR’s new collab album, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, has arrived on this fine Valentine’s Day, as promised, and it finds Drizzy addressing a few of his ops, including Kendrick Lamar and Joe Budden.
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On “Gimme a Hug,” an immediate standout on the 21-track album, Drake addresses past conflicts and rap beefs. And while he doesn’t mention Kendrick by name, Drake alludes to all the shots he took in result from his feud with the Compton rapper.
“Drake elimination, fake intimidation / Take a minute, take a deep breath, have a little bit of patience / ‘Drizzy, you amazing, you the inspiration / You set the bar for the next generation / You Neo in The Matrix, these n****s just Nemo in the ocean / Small fish, making kids feel emotion / Using you for promotion,’ truer words have never been spoken," Drake raps on his opening verse.
“N****s want to see ‘RIP me’ on a t-shirt like I’m Hulk Hogan / I appreciate the fans rocking with me, this is really just a small token / Really f***ing with a visionary / Only reason I ain’t got a girl and I ain’t getting marriеd / ‘Cause I’m really out herе, filling up the itinerary ’til I’m six feet in a cemetery.”
“Bulletproof doors so heavy, got me rolling ’round like a dignitary / Funny how it’s only b**** n****s that are waiting on The Boy’s obituary / ‘Cause if I die, it’s these n****s that become the sole beneficiary / And what the f*** are they gon’ do with it? / Have the girls up at 29 on stage twerking with a dictionary?,” Drake goes on, with those latter bars possibly a reference to Lamar’s “Euphoria” cover art, which is a screenshot of an online dictionary.
After a bouncy beat switch, Drizzy asserts his intentions to move past the rap beef altogether, and focus on music that’ll get the people going. “They be dropping s***, but we be dropping harder s*** / F*** a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit / Tryna get the party lit for the b****es / Them Nike tights is hugging on that ass like they missed it.”
Opting to take a more direct approach to address his beef with Budden, on the second beat switch that samples Aaron Hall’s 1993 R&B hit “I Miss You,” Drake fires off pointed remarks aimed directly at the podcast host.
“Melyssa Ford, you a legend from the 6, hate to see you with a d***-sucker,” he raps, referencing the former video vixen who co-hosts The Joe Budden Podcast.
And Drake’s comeuppance didn’t stop there, on “Brian Steel,” which is named after the lawyer who represented Young Thug in his RICO trial and negotiated his release from jail, Drake responds to the YSL rapper’s tweet for him, Future and Metro Boomin to bury the hatchet.
For those unaware, or perhaps simply forgot, Kendrick began the beef with Drake on Future and Metro Boomin’s track “Like That.” Responding to Drake and J. Cole’s claims the two of them and K.Dot were “the big three,” on “First Person Shooter.”
Shortly before Thug regained his freedom last October, he posted on X: “@Drake @1future @MetroBoomin we all bruddas. Music aint the same without us collabin.”
To which Drake’s response was, “Broski just hit me, said, ‘Put all the beef on the side,’ I can’t / Mm-hmm, I’m heated now, yeah / N****s want meet up, talk about s***, I’m vegan now / Evil eyes were staring at me and I see it now.”
$ome $exy $ongs 4 U marks Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR’s first album together following a long-running working relationship that has served us up tracks like “Recognize,” “Over Here” and “Come and See Me.” It also serves as Drake’s first full-length offering since his long-simmering rivalry with Kendrick Lamar boiled over last year.
Listen to Drake pop-off on “Gimme a Hug” above, and check out the rest of $ome $exy $ongs 4 U below.