André 3000 weighs in on the most talked-about beef of the year involving Drake and Kendrick Lamar. Surprisingly, the Atlanta MC admits he felt sad about it all.
André 3000 Admits He Felt Sad About Drake and Kendrick Lamar Beefing
A flute-playing rapper doesn’t seem like he’d be the first guy to get in some beef, so it makes sense André 3000 wasn’t egging on the rap battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake earlier this year. The OutKast member keeps it real about what he thought of the two rap stars being at odds in a new cover story interview with Crack magazine, which debuted Thursday (Aug. 8).
During the conversation, Three Stacks admitted that he did enjoy the beef as it was playing out, but then got in his feelings regarding the bigger picture of the issues K-Dot and Drizzy had with one another. Kendrick even name-dropped André on “Like That,” the song that reignited K-Dot’s feud with Drake.
“I got a little sad, at a certain point,” André 3000 revealed. “In early rap battles, you had kids in the park rapping against each other. But it’s not just people rapping now. You got people with 100 employees. You have livelihoods, empires, companies, deals—all of it can be jeopardized. If you don’t have anything to lose, sure, go for it. But if I already made it, I’m not sure it’s even worth it any more.”
André has a point. As Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s beef got heavy, serious accusations were thrown from both sides. Drake accused K-Dot of abusing his fiancée on the diss track “Family Matters” while Kendrick called Drizzy a pedophile on “Not Like Us.” Neither are words any artist wants to have connected to their name on a simple Google search. The livelihoods that André says could be jeopardized from beef that escalates is no exaggeration.
Beef has never really been part of André 3000’s M.O. as a solo artist or as part of OutKast with Big Boi. The Atlanta-bred lyricist has created a few diss tracks of his own, though they have never been released. “You have feelings… if n***as say some slick sh*t, lines will come to your head immediately,” he added.
As he performs overseas this summer and heads into fall for his North American tour in support of his New Blue Sun album, André 3000 is putting his zen energy into the flute rather than the booth.