Yasiin Bey, the rapper formerly known as Mos Def, is letting the world know that he is not impressed with Drake‘s songs. Bey took some jabs at Drake when he appeared on The Cutting Room Floor podcast. A trailer for the podcast showed the 50-year-old artist describing Drake’s music as pop, not rap.
“Drake is pop to me,” Bey said. “In the sense, like, if I was in Target in Houston and I heard a Drake song… It feels like a lot of his music is compatible with shopping. Or, you know, shopping with an edge in certain instances.”
The “Sunshine” rapper also predicts that Drake’s career won’t last much longer.
“What happens when this thing collapses?” he said. “What happens when the columns start buckling? Are we not in some early stage of that at this present hour? Are we seeing the collapse of an empire?”
Drake, according to Bey, doesn’t have much to offer for his fans.
“Buying and selling, where’s the message that I can use?” he added. “You know, what’s in it for your audience apart from banging the pom-poms?”
Bey then added that Drake’s music is “likable.” But the rapper couldn’t control his laughter after trying to compliment Drake’s work. He also added some sarcasm to his answer.
“So many products! So many SKUs! Look at all these SKUs!” he joked. “I love this mall. Look at this place! I mean, look at this place! They have everything! Everything’s here. Oh, this is great. This is the new Drake, you hear it? It’s great.”
Drake previously expressed his feelings about Bey in 2023 after releasing his poetry book, Titles Ruin Everything. The 37-year-old artist first noticed that his book was getting brutally honest reviews from popular poets like Hanif Abdurraqib and Aris Kian, who published their critique in an article for Complex. Drake then sent a DM to complex, saying he wants an article “where the baddest Instagram girls in the world review my poetry book, not the head of the Mos Def fan club… Thanks.”
