Following the Toronto rapper’s feud with Kendrick Lamar, Sauce Walka reiterates his claim that Drake is appropriating Houston culture without giving back to its representatives.
The Houston-born rapper recently expressed his displeasure The Breakfast Club and passionately questioned Drake’s commitment to the city he claims to love, and questioned why he seems less willing to collaborate with Houston artists and instead opts for Atlanta artists.
“You said without Houston there would be no Drake, right?” Sauce Walka asked Charlamagne Tha God rhetorically. “Why hasn’t Drake put out a lot of records with Houston artists? You did it with Atlanta. You recorded songs with 7, 8, 9, 15 artists in Atlanta.”
In contrast, Sauce Walka believes that Drake exploited Houston for his “market share” without making a significant contribution to the music scene there.
“It’s a long California, it’s a long list of artists from The Bay to LA – they have Drake songs,” he noted. “How could Drake love Houston so much back then and not have music with artists that you highlight from that community?”
Sauce Walka continued to emphasize the need for fair exchange in the music industry, especially when an artist like Drake leverages a city’s culture to advance his own career, so he called for efforts that will truly boost Houston’s music economy and provide more opportunities for local artists.
“Damn, I don’t care,” he said. “It’s bigger than me. I didn’t care about the song with me. What I’m saying doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but from then until now, the only rapper that still has a song with Drake is Travis Scott. Again, what I just said makes sense because it’s an equal exchange.”
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As Sauce Walka’s approach continues to gain traction, Drake’s partners are already weighing in. Drake’s longtime producer Boi1da was drawn into the discussion in the comments section of an Instagram post in which a user defended Drizzy’s commitment to collaborating with Houston artists.
“Travis, Bun B, Pimp C, OG Ron C, DJ Screw, several Houston producers, etc… though the entitlement mentality is insane,” the user wrote.
Boi1da followed suit and added in his reply to the comment: “Selective memory.”
This isn’t the first time Drake has faced such criticism for his dedication to a particular region or cultural subset of hip-hop. During his feud with Kendrick Lamar, the West Coast rapper called Drake a “colonizer” in his diss track “Not Like Us,” accusing him of relying on Atlanta artists for exposure and profit throughout his career. And in fact, this isn’t even the first time Sauce Walka has criticized him, considering he addressed the same topic nearly 10 years ago in his song “Wack 2 Wack.”
Watch the clip above to hear Sauce Walka.
