Kanye West wants the world to know that the war with Drake is over and that there’s a larger fight in the world to fight. Laying down his sword and propping up his longtime rival, Ye threw his support behind Drake’s high-profile lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) and the company’s chairman, Lucian Grainge, in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“I got to give Drake some love, too, for going at the machine,” Kanye said, his demeanor oscillating between admiration and acknowledgment. And just like that, one of rap’s most iconic beefs took a hard left.
The amended legal filing alleges that UMG staged Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance, during which he rapped “Not Like Us,” as part of a spot effort against Drake. The suit even deems the 133.5 million-viewer event a calculated attempt to assassinate Drake’s character, claiming UMG doubled down on the diss by pumping the track during the 2025 Grammys, where it won both Song and Record of the Year.
Kanye knows what it sounds like when the writing is on the wall: that the real enemy isn’t Drake, Kendrick, or any fellow artist, but rather the machine behind the curtain. “I’m never finna disrespect Drake. I’m Team Drake 100 percent,” Ye said in the video, offering a rare public promise of respect. “And Team Kendrick and Team all of us. Kendrick needs to be going at UMG at this point.”
Ye’s adding a special ingredient to the sauce: unity, however unlikely, meaning even Kendrick, the supposed co-star of this label’s staged takedown, should be redirecting his fire. “This is what I said in my version of ‘Like That,’ ” Kanye continued, suggesting that he was on this page long before we noticed or could’ve noticed.
This is someone who infamously turned a MAGA hat into a cultural grenade, who ripped a hole through genre lines with Yeezus, and now his latest pivot seems grounded? Passionate, yes. But perhaps, this time, he’s shooting at the right target. In his view, the time for artist-versus-artist beef is over. The real struggle for power is fought out between creators and the companies enabling them.
As the industry steels itself for the storm Drake’s lawsuit could bring, its message is already resonating: less backbiting and more focus on the system that benefits from it all. If hip-hop were a battlefield, Kanye would have waved a flag of surrender, but only so that he could raise the stakes.
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