By K.B. Tindal
Hip Hop Vibe Staff Writer
Back in 2011, Drake found himself being dissed by everyone. Despite the support he has always received from Kanye West, most of the shots were coming from G.O.O.D. Music. A lot of people expected a major blowup with Drake and Pusha T, but it ended up never coming.
Instead, Common entered his first major beef since Ice Cube and Westside Connection with his “Sweet” song. Following the song, Common had tough talk for Drake in his interviews, leading to more subliminal shots. Drake had enough and dissed Common on Rick Ross’ “Stay Schemin” alongside French Montana, prompting the response.
Recently, Drake did an interview with XXL and he reflected on the beef with Common. At the 2012 NBA All-Star Game in Orlando, Drake and Common made up. During the interview, Drake reflected on the feud and the infamous Canada Dry line, but still declared himself the winner.
Read excerpts from the interview below:
XXL: You did strike back at Common after he dissed you last year.
Drake: Obviously, the whole tension with that whole camp has been brewing for a long time, and that was the first time someone had called me out personally. I reacted in a very poised way. First of all, I made sure it would run in the club because that’s more painful than anything. As opposed to just being on a blog, I wanted to be on a record that you would have to stand around and hear every night for a few months. That was my whole strategy going into that. Instead of sounding hurt and malicious, I wanted to sound fun, get my !! off. Like I said, if it happens again, not that I want it, not that I welcome it, but I’m ready. I really enjoy writing bars, man. I’m not nervous about anybody saying anything to me.
XXL: It seemed like you won, but his last line was good.
Drake: The Canada Dry line? That was epic. I liked it. It wasn’t a good line necessarily, but it was funny.
XXL: Did he step over the line when he scorned you for being biracial?
Drake: For you to delve into my mom and my dad’s a !! and all that, you’re just reaching for impact moments but the bars aren’t really good so it didn’t hit me. I never sat back and analyzed that either. I only heard it once, and thought, “I think I came away with the W on that one.”
Follow K.B. Tindal on Twitter @KBTindal.
