Drake is gearing up for … something.
Less than a month after releasing “Some Sexy Songs 4 U” — a collaborative studio album with Mississauga singer PartyNextDoor — the Toronto rapper is teasing a new chapter that, he writes, “may leave you feeling uneasy.”
“U know I grew up non confrontational and always treated this game as a sport where my pen won gold, but my these days the podium has been hard for all of us to ignore,” Drake captioned an Instagram post that he shared with his 143 million followers on Monday. “I understand that this next chapter may leave you feeling uneasy, but I hope you see my honesty as clarity not charity that answers some questions especially about the unanswered texts you’ve been sending me.”
The post also included a series of cryptic images — a selfie, a clip of Drake being showered with confetti on stage, a screen grab from the Paul Thomas Anderson film “Phantom Thread” and what appears to be two Zofran tablets (a medication used to quell nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, radiation or surgery).
It’s unclear what exactly Drake, 38, is referring to, though one can’t help but assume that it has something to do with his never-ending feud with Los Angeles rapper Kendrick Lamar, which erupted nearly a year ago.
That feud has been rough on the “6ix God.”
In May 2024, Lamar released “Not Like Us,” a searing diss track that accuses Drake, without evidence, of being a pedophile. The song debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and broke several streaming records on Spotify. Just days after the song’s release, Drake’s security guard was seriously injured when he was shot at the rapper’s Bridle Path Mansion in Toronto.
Since then, “Not Like Us” has won five Grammys, and was the climax of Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show.
The song is also the subject of a federal defamation lawsuit that Drake filed against his record label Universal Music Group in January, which claims that the company “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track” that was “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.”
Still, it seemed that Drake was ready to move on from the feud. ”F—k a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit,” he rapped on his recent track “Gimme a Hug,” though the song also contained a subtle jab at Lamar.
Drake’s recent Instagram post, however, seems to signal that he’s ready to go on the offensive.
Just hours after it was posted, the Billboard 200 released its weekly results, showing that Lamar’s 2024 album “GNX” had reclaimed the No. 1 spot, beating out Drake’s “Some Sexy Songs 4 U” by a mere 500 units.
Are we in for another chaotic spring?
