In a time where some of the largest artists at the forefront of hip-hop aren't "gangsta," there has curiously been a revival in hip-hop "beef" recently. This is not necessarily the "beef" that we are all used to. Unlike Tupac's shots, which explicitly named his targets, today's beef is all about veiled subliminals that don't call out its targets by name.
Pusha-T launched a missile when he released "Exodus 23:1" featuring The-Dream, which carried these contentious references, which many took as shots at Drake.
"Contract all fucked up / I guess that means you all f--ked up / You signed to one n----, that's signed to another n----, that's signed to three n----s."
"Now that's bad luck / Damn that sh-t even the odds now / You better off selling this hard now / You call it living out your dreams / You can't fly without your wings."
Apparently Lil' Wayne, Young Money's head honcho, felt a certain way about Pusha T's words in the new song although neither his name or Drake's was ever exclusively mentioned.
In reaction to "Exodus 23:1" Lil' Wayne sent out the tweet below.
On G.O.O.D. Music's side of thing Kid Cudi jumped to the defense of his labelmate with the tweet below.
Everyone is now waiting to see where the rest of the members of the two crews fall on the issue. This is slightly different from when Drake and Common had their issues as both teams remained silent then. We still have our fingers crossed for a Lil' Twist and Lil' Chuckee tag team bout versus Mr. Hudson and Teyana Taylor.
YMCMB were not the only people upset by "Exodus 23:1" as "I Don't Like" producer Young Chop took to Twitter venting about certain lines on the song.
This is all after he supposedly settled differences with Mr. West for altering his beat for the G.O.O.D Music remix of the song. In an interview with Hiphopdx Young Chop admits that he expects Pusha T to be the bigger man because he is only 18 years old and doesn't understand why Pusha T dissed him.
In truth, Internet hype is partly to blame for these oversensitive artists. Just because Pusha T references a "producer" in the song doesn't mean he is talking about Young Chop specifically. Then again, if Pusha wanted to avoid misunderstandings, he'd name names. So there's plenty of blame to go around.
Fans will have to stay tuned to see how this one pans out. Hopefully all the overreactions and sensitivity to lyrics results in more good music from both parties. With the G.O.O.D Music album slated to release sometime this summer.
Until then we are all left to speculate on what is meant by the subliminal lines. In the meantime listen to "Exodus 23:1" which is definitely vintage Pusha T.
