The feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar was the biggest rap event of the year so far, and it left many fans in a frenzy. However, some rap elders have expressed their disapproval of the whole spectacle. Questlove, for example, posted that it was “wrestling-level mudslinging” and that “hip hop is truly dead.” All-time rap star André 3000 doesn’t go as far as Questlove, but he didn’t like it either.
André is currently on tour with his instrumental flute album New blue sunand it is the subject of a new Crack Cover story. In an interview, André says what he felt about the fight between Drake and Kendrick: “I got a little sad at some point. In the early rap battles, kids rapped against each other in the park. But today, it’s not just people who rap. There are people with 100 employees. Livelihoods, empires, companies, contracts – everything can be at stake. If you have nothing to lose, then of course you can try. But if I’ve already done it, I’m not sure if it’s even worth it anymore.”
André says he has written diss tracks about other artists and that it can be a good way to process feelings, but he has chosen not to release songs of that nature, even if another artist calls him out by name. But André didn’t mind hearing his name in Kendrick Lamar’s verse on Future’s “Like That,” the first real blow in the feud: “If he’s walking around with that stick, it’s not André 3K.” André tells Crack“As a 49-year-old rapper, you just love getting a shoutout. But as a rapper, I walk around with this stick. So that was a reference for me too and I tried to find a way to use it. But Kendrick used it, so I had to say, ‘Yeah, he got it.'”
It is a little remarkable that André still sees himself as a rapper and still thinks about new lyrics. Last year, André said GQ that he doesn’t think he can really rap about his life in middle age: “I’m not saying that age dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does. And things that are happening in my life, like, what are you talking about? ‘I have to get a colonoscopy.’ What are you rapping about? ‘My eyesight is failing.'”
In the Crack In his story, André mentions that the last rap verse he wrote was on Kanye West’s “Life Of The Party” in 2021. (He appeared on Killer Mike’s Grammy-winning “Scientists & Engineers” last year, but he tells Crack that he recorded that verse seven years ago.) Now, André says those comments are specific to him and don’t necessarily apply to rappers with other styles: “Some are the best swaggering rappers in the world, and we love them for that — but it’s so much easier to do that for the rest of your life. I don’t necessarily rap like that. Our formulas are different… He doesn’t know what it takes for me to do what I do. I don’t know what it takes for him to say the same thing over and over again and still keep it creative. But I love him for doing it.” (That’s a generic “he,” not a specific person.) Read the Crack History here.
