Common has came to Drake’s defense in the topic that began from Yasiin Bey, previously known as Mos Def stating that Drake isn’t true hip hop. Common recently spoke with Hot 97 where he weighed in on the topic of Drake’s music category where he said:
“I wrote a song called ‘I Used to Love H.E.R.’ and that joint was really speaking to that to a certain degree. Like, at that time, when it started becoming real corporate and losing the purity of it. I think now, you know, artists can be artists. Some people, if their intention is to just be a pop artist, then so be it.”
He continued his take on it by saying: “I think Drake comes from hip-hop. When I first heard him rhyming, I was like, ‘Yo, this dude rhyming.’ And if he goes out and makes songs that are popular, then that’s what it is.”
“The dude is an incredible songwriter, he’s an incredible artist. You can’t touch that many people…for as long a time as he’s been doing,” he noted of Drake.
He also took the time to give Yasiin Bey his props as well.
“Yasiin is a genius, man. I’ve been around that dude and watched him as an actor, as an artist and listened to a lot of his raps. He is very high level when it comes to poetic rap—not even just poetic rap, but I’m saying he has poetry within his rap. He can style on anything. He can do a lot.”
Common responds to Mos Def / Yasiin Bey saying that Drake is Pop
“to me, Drake comes from Hip-Hop”
he also continues on and praises Kendrick Lamar putting him in his Top 10 rappers of all time
via @HOT97 pic.twitter.com/OgU77jseI6
— SOUND (@itsavibe) January 25, 2024
Common weighing in on Drake’s music genre is quite interesting due to the fact of the two previously having beef back in late 2011 through early 2012 where Common dissed Drake on his record “Sweet” and Drake responded on Rick Ross’ song “Stay Schemin'” and Common making a remix in response.
The two eventually squashed their drama the same year in 2012 months later where they met up in person at an all star game in Orlando. He spoke of them squashing it back in 2019 on REAL 92.3’s Big Boy’s Neighborhood.
“When we had that beef, that beef was for real for me. It was real for him. We saw each other at the Grammys and it was like a little tension, and then it was just like a real honest talk that we had about like his respect for me. I was letting him know I thought he was a really dope and talented artist and we just squashed it then,” he detailed.
He continued, “It was like, what are we even beefing over at this point. This ain’t where we want our lives to go, so let me just chill out on that. So I gotta give like him a lot of respect ‘cause he handled that like a grown man should. He looked me in my eye and told me, ‘Look, I really respect your music.’ I felt bad when he was dissing me.”
.@common on squashing beef with Drake pic.twitter.com/PN2x0bKmb0
— Big Boy (@BigBoy) June 7, 2019
