The fire fuming from an ongoing beef between rappers Drake and Kanye West is only growing larger with the latest diss record featuring Andre 3000.
On the morning of Sept. 4 the OVO rapper leaked Kanye’s diss record “Life of the Party” during a guest DJ set on his Sirius XM radio channel Sound 42. On the record Ye takes aim with lyrics such as: “I put Virgil and Drake on the same text/ And it wasn’t about the matching arc’teryx or Kid Cudi dress/ Just told these grown men stop it with the funny s—t.”
Elsewhere on the track the Southside Chicago emcee zeros in on Drake by rapping:
“Thought he was the new Abu Dhabi/ Told Drake don’t play with me on GD/ And he sent that message to everybody/ So if I hit you with a ‘WYD’/ You better hit me with a ‘Yes sir, I’m writing everything you need.’”
The record is only the latest barrage of lyrical jabs between the two following the release of Kanye’s “Donda’ album on Aug. 29 and Drake’s release of “Certified Lover Boy” on Sept. 3. But what took most hip-hop lovers by surprise was hearing one half of “OutKast” featured on the diss track. “Three Stacks” has laid low for over a decade, give or take a few guest appearances on records and a 2014 Coachella performance, and his recent resurgence on a diss record sent social media into a frenzy.
However, despite the nature of the record nothing about the Atlanta rapper’s lyrics played into the back and forth between Drake and Kanye. He raps:
“Miss Donda, if you see my mama, tell her I’m lost/ You see she’d always light a cigarette, we talked, I would cough/ Exaggeratin’ a lil’ bit so she get the point…Miss Donda, you see my father, please, ask him: Why he never married? Always smiled but was he happy inside?/ Because I carried my mother’s name, did he carry shame with him?”
With fans caught up in the hoopla of a petty beef between rappers, Andre 3000 felt the need to clear the air about his involvement. In a statement released to Rolling Stone, the rapper said he was presented with the opportunity of being featured on “Life of the Party” as a tribute to Kanye’s late mother, Donda West, hence the reason he raps about his own deceased mother, Sharon Hodo.
“It felt appropriate to me to support the Donda concept by referencing my own mother, who passed away in 2013. We both share that loss. I thought it was a beautiful choice to make a clean album but, unfortunately, I didn’t know that was not the plan before I wrote and recorded my verse,” wrote the “Hey Ya!” rapper.
He went on to explain that it was obvious a clean version of the record would not work for the album release, so it was ultimately omitted from the final track list. However, the version that fans heard Labor Day weekend was not the one Andre 3000 initially contributed his vocals to.
“The track I received and wrote to didn’t have the diss verse on it and we were hoping to make a more focused offering for the Donda album but I guess things happen like they are supposed to. It’s unfortunate that it was released in this way and two artists that I love are going back and forth.” He added that he even wanted to be among the featured artists on Drake’s newest album.
“I just want to work with people that inspire me. Hopefully I can work with Kendrick on his album. I’d love to work with Lil’ Baby, Tyler and Jay-Z. I respect them all.”
Fans realizing that Andre 3000’s name was caught in a messy musical incident took issue with the diss record making it to the masses following his remarks.
