By The Hip Hop Writer
Hip Hop Vibe Staff Writer
At the time when Drake signed to Young Money, all beef appeared to be in the past. Years before, Lil Wayne had dissed Jay-Z several times. When their “beef” appeared to reach a new height, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne began a series of collaborations. The duo did not collaborate in 2009, but Jay-Z did shout Lil Wayne out on one of his songs. Meanwhile, Drake was featured on the “Off That” track from The Blueprint 3.
In 2010, Jay-Z returned to his office and Kanye West was in the lab, working on his comeback album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. At the same time, Lil Wayne was preparing for his prison sentence and Drake was preparing his debut album. Drake again reached out to the members of the Roc for collaborations. Jay-Z was featured on Drake’s album and Kanye West provided production. Around this time, Drake announced he and Lil Wayne had a joint album in the works.
Towards the end of 2010, Jay-Z made a similar announcement about an album he and Kanye West had in the works. Given the mutual respect and the strong working relationship, it was expected from Drake to be more congratulatory than he was. Instead, when Drake was asked about the album, he said Jay-Z might have gotten the idea from the project he and Lil Wayne announced. From there, Jay-Z dropped “H.A.M.,” which included the “baby money” diss, which led to Lil Wayne’s response on “It’s Good.” Since the series of disses have been flying, Drake has become a target.
Longtime friend of Kanye West, Common, who was signed to G.O.O.D. Music until last year, recently fired some shots at Drake. There have also been rumors of a beef brewing between Drake and Kanye West. Some said Kanye West intentionally held up some Take Care tracks, which prompted Drake to delay the album from October until November of 2011. With so many rumors flying around Drake’s producer, Noah “40” Shebib, has stepped forward to clear up some of these issues. 40 said there are no issues between Drake, himself, and Kanye West, despite being accused by West of stealing his style.
Downplaying the beef rumors, 40 said he looks up to Kanye West and admitted to incorporating his style into his own production.
