Drake has spoken about Kendrick Lamar’s verse on Big Sean’s “Control.” Drake addressed the matter during an interview for CRWN with Elliott Wilson in New York University’s Skirball Center.
“That [‘Control’] verse was a moment to talk about,” Drake said, as reported by Miss Info and Vibe. “Are you listening to it now?”
Drake, who said it was “all love” when he saw Lamar days later, also explained why he lost respect for “the sentiments” behind Kendrick Lamar’s verse on “Control.”
“He didn’t come in there on some wild, ‘I’m in New York, fuck everybody.’ I almost wish he had come in there on that shit because I kind of lost a little bit of respect for the sentiment of the verse,” Drake said. “If it’s really ‘fuck everybody’ then it needs to be ‘fuck everybody’. It can’t just be halfway.”
Drake also addressed the Kendrick Lamar verse in a recent interview with Billboard.
“I didn’t really have anything to say about it,” Drake said. “It just sounded like an ambitious thought to me…I know good and well that Kendrick’s not murdering me, at all, in any platform…When that day presents itself, I guess we can revisit the topic.”
The CRWN interview, filmed over the weekend, has not aired. Part 1 of the CRWN interview series presented by Myspace will air on myspace.com Wednesday, September 25. It will air in 3 parts. Past CRWN interviews were done with J. Cole and Macklemore.
(September 23)
UPDATE: Part 1 of Drake’s interview for CRWN was released today. The excerpts above were from this interview. In the full clip, Drake says more regarding this matter.
“He’s the new guy to love and rightfully so,” Drake says in the clip regarding Kendrick Lamar. “He’s super talented…That verse was a moment to talk about. Are you listening to it now, at this point in time? But it was real cool for a couple weeks. But if I ask you, for example, how does that verse start? Mind you, it’ll go on and Complex or Rap Radar will give it ‘Verse of the Millennium’ and all that shit or whatever…I remember somebody asked if Kendrick Lamar is my biggest competition in this generation. I think Kendrick has the utmost potential. I see Kendrick tomorrow, I’ma dap him. I didn’t feel a way about the verse. I get it. I get the moment. And I know that verse had no malice behind it because I saw him five days later at the VMAs and it was all love.
Drake Says He Aspires To Surpass Kanye West
“When it comes to competition, I’m more about consistency,” Drake continued. “I’m more worried about bodies of work. I’m talking about hit records. I’m basically talking about, there’s one guy who’s up every night thinking about how to get better and how to do things bigger. That’s Kanye West. He’s always gonna be the guy that’s trying to outthink and outdo. So, for me, that’s my guy that I aspire to surpass.
“As far as Kendrick goes, I can’t wait to see what he does,” Drake added. “Now it’s time to show and prove. It’s been one album. Consistency, you need more than one album. It’s time to show and prove. I look forward to seeing what he does. He’s fuckin’ super talented. Cheers to Kendrick Lamar.”
