First off, I am an avid Drake fan. With that being said, proceed with caution.
I'm not going to lie, Pusha T is somewhat cold. But I would not call him a goat or say he heavily dominates the Hip Hop industry. If you disagree, you are in denial. You can say whatever you want about Drake. You can say he doesn't write his own raps, call him a culture vulture, and even say he is a cornball. The dude remains RELEVANT. And he has done so for the longevity of his career. I've read the Twitter comments related to this beef, and I have come to the conclusion that all of people just love to hate Drake. And that is extremely lame.
I understand this beef has been ongoing for some years now, and it started with Pusha T's issue with Wayne. In 06 when Wayne wore BAPE on a Vibe and in his video "Hustler Musik", Pusha T felt that Wayne was biting his style. Apparently the Pusha T and his brother (formerly known as Clipse) were the some of the first people to sport BAPE clothing along with Pharrell. Consequently, this ignited the on and off diss tracks between the two. I assume this is why Pusha T came after Drake, because he has an issue with Wayne's affiliates.
Now being a lover of music, specifically Hip Hop and R&B, I listened to Infrared and Duppy. First off, I'd like to state that Drake and Pusha T are two different rappers, and in two different categories in my opinion. Pusha T is a mix between a lyricist and technical rapper. His lyrics are very intentional and it is obvious he a very conscious rapper. His messages he relay through his raps are always conscious along with flows. Listening over his album, I really like Hard Piano because I think this portrays his classic flow (specifically the intro). I would consider Drake a party and story teller rapper. The dude is very universal and can create a song for every mood you might be experiencing. He has songs that'll have you turning up in the club such as: Nice for What, Child's Play, HYFR, etc. Then there's something for your feelings like: Marvin's Room, Fire and Desire, Hate sleeping alone, etc. And then there is classic reminiscent Drake with the tracks like: Fireworks, From Time, Do Not Disturb, and wow I could go on! Of course these songs don't even half way exemplify his genius, but you get my point.
I feel like Pusha T's diss was very weak. To say he hasn't released anything in a while, he could have come much harder and made a more intentional diss. Honestly Drake didn't even need to respond, but I love his energy. Pusha T said, " The lyric pennin' equal the Trumps winnin, The bigger question is how the Russians did it, It was written like Nas but it came from Quentin, At the mercy of a game where the culture’s missing." I'm going to stop there because I almost yawned. I'm a Drake fan obviously, but can rappers please attack something other than him potentially having a ghost writer. I know poor Quentin tired of y’all putting him in this beef. There are so many other things you guys can go after besides that. Talk about how he can't keep a woman, or how Rihanna don't mess with him. Talk about how he a culture vulture or how he stills flows. Dig up some dirt about his childhood or his rise to fame. Like make the beef juicy. If I was a rapper I'd do the most. But hey that's me, I don't like losing! And Pusha T if you are in fact coming at Drake, off the strength of the dislike for Wayne... that's dumb. You talking about this dude not writing his music, yet he wrote Father I Stretch My Hands. So I feel that's very contradictory, and discredits your statement in a sense. That's like me saying, "Oh yea Bill broke, but he bought my mama a purse." I know that is a dumb example, but I think y'all get my point.
Now Drake on the other hand came with some heat for Duppy. Let's also acknowledge that Drake is one of the few to hop in the studio almost immediately when a diss is thrown his way. Anyway, let me state some of my favorite lines from this diss. I think we knew the flow was going to be nasty when he started off by saying, "I'm in shock, the nerve, the audacity" then proceeded to say okay and sighs. I knew he was about to get in his bag. Then he says," So if you rebuke me for working with someone else on a couple of Vs, What do you really think of the n#gga that's making your beats? I've done things for him I thought that he never would need, Father had to stretch his hands out and get it from me, I pop style for 30 hours, then let him repeat. Now, you popping up with the jokes, I'm dead, I'm asleep." He really went at his neck. One he dispelled the rumors of him having ghost writer and minimized it to just "a little help." Then he went at him at his boss neck. He's calling Pusha T out on his hypocrisy, as I stated earlier. It's like how do say that, when I wrote Kanye's song, a very popular hit at that. Next, "Must've had your Infrared wrong, now your head in the beam, y’all are the spitting image of whatever jealousy breeds." This was nice because he is saying that Pusha T was wrong about the ghost writing rumors. He is also saying that the infrared (track) was a missed shot, (now your head in the beam), and now he is a target in regards to Drake. He also is referencing Ye’s song Ultralight Beam. When Drake said he wasn't even top five as far as his label talent goes, that was subtle yet effective. Imagine being put below Big Sean and Designer as far skills. I'm not saying it's true, but it is quite insulting and would trigger me. He also referenced him being older than the dude he running behind, I assume he is referring to Kanye, who is one year older than Pusha T. He basically called him an over-hyped drug dealer and gangster by saying, "But you act like you sold drugs in Escobar in the 80's." And lastly, "I told you keep playing with my name and I'ma let it ring on you like Virginia Williams." He makes it really simple that he can take his girl (Pusha T's girlfriend is Virginia Williams) and in take his place in the rap game. This the type of diss I like. Drake up by one.