Another week, another new bizarre development in Drake and Kanye West’s eternal cold war, which has been running quite hot for the last month. It was inevitable that Drake would stoke the flames with new bars on his album—sure enough, a full song was dedicated to addressing and dissing Kanye. Neither Kanye nor his cohorts like Pusha T have responded at press time, but an unexpected plot twist came during the wee hours of Friday night/Saturday morning when Drake went on his Instagram to promote OVO Sound’s weekly Sirius radio show Sound 42 a little harder than usual. Fans took the hint, and instead of just Certified Lover Boy songs and rare loosie tracks, Drake unearthed a song not from his own vault, but…Kanye’s.
Let’s back up: this past week Kanye granted his first interview during the Donda era to a journalist in Berlin, where he previewed a new song with Andre 3000 called “Life of the Party.” (The album is named after/inspired by Kanye’s late mother, on one track he wistfully raps “Mama, you were the life of the party.”) It was expected that Kanye would formally release the track soon, if not on its own then by adding it to Donda on streaming services. Well, whatever his plans were, Drake promptly spoiled them—somehow Drake acquired a high quality rip of the full song, which he played on Sound 42. At the same time, he changed the caption of a photo of himself playing Sound 42 with friends in front of his Toronto mansion from “Tune tf in” to “Waste removal.” Read into that what you will.
Regardless of Drake’s intentions though, response to the song was immediately positive, with many listeners declaring if “Life of the Party” made the cut, it would easily be the best song on Donda. Over the warm, soulful beat, Andre delivers a verse that connects the album’s theme to his experience losing his own mother back in 2013. (Andre previously released a crushing song about his mother’s passing in 2018.) “Hey, Miss Donda/If you run into my mama, please tell her I said, “Say something”/I’m starting to believe ain’t no such thing as heaven’s trumpets/No after-over, this is it, done/If there’s a Heaven you would think they’d let ya speak to your sonMaybe she has in the form of a baby’s laugh/I heard passing by in a stroller remindin me ‘Hey, keep rolling on.’” To close out the idea of communing with lost parents, the song closes with old audio of DMX reassuring his child from his classic rollercoaster video.
Kanye opens his verse also talking to his mother—“Mama, your son in the red hat had suffered setbacks”—but the turns it takes from there might explain why Drake chose to spoil its release. (Unfortunately there’s a second red hat reference, this time in the present tense.) It’s unclear when Kanye recorded this but the majority of the verse addresses his issues with Drake, from general shots like declaring he fathered Drake and a swath of other rappers’ style (“He made 808s, so he’s everyone’s dad”) to a direct name-drop: “Told Drake don’t play with me on GD/And he sent that message to everybody/So if I hit you with a ‘w-y-d’/You better hit me ‘Yes sir I’m writing everything you need.'” (GD refers to, of course, the Chicago gang Gangster Disciples, whose imprisoned founder, Larry Hoover, Kanye has been working to free.) He also alludes to the group chat he posted weeks ago that he started and added Drake and Virgil Abloh into, and even admits CyHi the Prynce, his close collaborator and co-writer, told him straight up that “Sicko Mode” is the biggest song he’s ever written on. (CyHi contributed to the now diamond certified song because he works closely and often with fellow Kanye affiliate Travis Scott, but Drake’s scene-stealing verse is infamous for containing several Kanye disses.)
All day, music fans wondered how the relatively solitary and by all intents peaceful Andre 3000 must feel about his unwitting proximity to this beef. In the late afternoon 3000 released a statement confirming he wants no parts of the squabble, and also explained the origins of “Life of the Party.” Read his full statement below, which he released via his rep, where he expresses regret over the song not making Donda‘s final cut but also says he would’ve loved to be on Certified Lover Boy (Drake and 3000 previously collaborated in 2011 on Take Care’s “The Real Her”) and also says he’d love to work with Tyler, The Creator, Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z, whose work and recent output he respects just as much as Kanye’s and Drake’s.
“A few weeks ago Kanye reached out about me being a part of the Donda album. I was inspired by his idea to make a musical tribute to his mom. 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 the plan before I wrote and recorded my verse. It was clear to me that an edited ‘clean’ format of the verse would not work without having the raw, original also available. So, sadly, I had to be omitted from the original album release.
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. I wanted to be on Certified Lover Boy too. 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.”
Earlier today, the rapper and longtime Kanye collaborator Consequence shared a text message exchange which fans took to mean that Kanye would officially release “Life of the Party” today at 8PM. At press time, the song hasn’t materialized yet, but Consequence offered a swerve of his own with a Drake diss track titled “Party Time” which contains lines like “I wish we could shoot five instead of group chats/Next time bring Chubbs with you when you shoot back.”