On Wednesday, Joe Budden dropped a three-hour long interview on Spotify with Pusha-T, just days after Drake shared another side of their feud on LeBron James and Maverick Carter's new HBO show The Shop.
The rapper and G.O.O.D Music president lays it all out on where he stands with Drake, breaking down where he learned about Aubrey’s son and why there are no rules in rap battles. He also goes into the more secretive side of the beef, playing voicemails from a woman and Clipse's former DJ to dig up dirt on Push for Drake's $100,000 payout.
Pusha also goes in on his relationship with Kanye during this time, 'Ye’s SNL performance, and how the rest of the G.O.O.D. Music crew is holding up this year.
It’s a massive listen, so for those of you who don’t have the time to spare, we’ve broken down the biggest points of the conversation. Here’s what we learned in Pusha-T’s latest interview.
On Wednesday, Joe Budden dropped a three-hour long interview on Spotify with Pusha-T, just days after Drake shared another side of their feud on LeBron James and Maverick Carter's new HBO show The Shop.
The rapper and G.O.O.D Music president lays it all out on where he stands with Drake, breaking down where he learned about Aubrey’s son and why there are no rules in rap battles. He also goes into the more secretive side of the beef, playing voicemails from a woman and Clipse's former DJ to dig up dirt on Push for Drake's $100,000 payout.
Pusha also goes in on his relationship with Kanye during this time, 'Ye’s SNL performance, and how the rest of the G.O.O.D. Music crew is holding up this year.
It’s a massive listen, so for those of you who don’t have the time to spare, we’ve broken down the biggest points of the conversation. Here’s what we learned in Pusha-T’s latest interview.
The Rules of Beef: There Are None
On The Shop, Drake argued that Pusha-T went too far by attacking Noah "40" Shebib and mentioning his MS on “The Story of Adidon,” saying it broke the rules when comes to rap beef.
Pusha-T and Budden spend the first part of this new interview going against that notion. For them, there are no rules when it comes to rap beef, even though Pusha admits he doesn’t take any of it very seriously. “It ain’t ever personal, it’s always rap shit, cause I don’t believe nothing,” he says. “I look at it just as competitive sparring...I believe they’re harmless. I believe everybody’s harmless.”
The G.O.O.D. Music president goes on to criticize Drake’s episode of The Shop, saying it was too biased and dramatic. “I don’t think how you can chime in so much and not mention 'Two Birds, One Stone,' Cudi’s mental issues, mentioning my wife,” he says. “And then only speak about me wishing death, when everybody heard the song, I didn’t wish death on anyone, but not that I care.”
Push’s main reason for this interview is to squash claims it was Kanye who told him about Drake’s son. "Only reason I'm here now, for real for real, is because [Drake] was so passionate about the MS thing," he said. "And they did the backlight and they put the spotlight on his face, 'When you said my friend,' but your friend is the reason why. That's how it came about. That narrative's gotta die. Listen, it needs to die. It's done. That narrative is done."
Pusha Says 40 Was Responsible for Giving Info About Drake's Son
The biggest news to come out of this massive interview hits us early on. Around the 20-minute mark, Pusha-T reveals that it was through Noah "40" Shebib, not Kanye, he learned about Drake’s son. This is wild info, considering 40 is Drake’s business partner, producer, best friend, and career-long collaborator, but it just goes to show: pillow talk is deadly.
40 didn’t tell Push directly about Drake’s child with Sophie Brussaux, but he learned about it through 40’s girlfriend and confidant.
"The information came from 40," the G.O.O.D. Music president says. "It didn’t come from Kanye, at all. 40 is sleeping with a woman, who begins to . . . he talks to her daily. Five, six hours a day . . . And ultimately speaks about how he's disgruntled about certain things, notoriety and things involving Drake and his career, and so on and so forth. With that also came the fact that Drake has a child. With that also came the trip that everybody took to go see the child, and bring him gifts, and all this information. She divulged this information. That's where it came from."
It’s unclear how this bombshell is going to affect Drizzy’s relationship with his best friend, who was also a target in Push’s “The Story of Adidon,” but this definitely doesn’t look good for the OVO family.
Pusha-T Addresses Big Sean and Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar throwing subs at Big Sean in 2017 may feel like ancient history, considering it never really took off, but that doesn’t stop Budden from looking for answers about it from the G.O.O.D. Music leader. When Budden asks why Sean never responded to K-Dot and is “avoiding the smoke,” Pusha plays it political and simply says, “I don’t know what you mean.”
When pressed again about why the conflict between Sean and Kendrick didn’t come to a head, even after the TDE rapper dared Sean to say his name on "The Heart Part 4," Pusha-T once again deflects.
“I don’t know what their buttons are,” he responds. If there’s one overarching thing we learned from this interview, it’s that Pusha knows how to choose his words carefully.
A Woman Close to Pusha-T Attempted to Get Dirt on Him for Drake
One-third of the way through the interview, Pusha-T gets into the shadowy details about his feud with Drake. He revisits his claim that Drake hired someone for $100,000 to get dirt on him.
“In this situation, like I was saying earlier, I had tweeted out, ‘Yo, there’s $100,000 can’t dig skeletons that don’t exist.’ That was a real thing. On my way to Wyoming to listen to the Ye album, we get a call. And basically, a old friend of mine [said], ‘Listen, somebody reached out to me. They got a $100,000 for information on you.’ And I knew it was true,” he says.
Push says he was shocked by the situation, because the person Drake hired was someone he is close to. “It was this girl named Cap. This person who was mediating this $100,000 was someone who worked on all of my projects,” he says. “Why you would ever do that to me, it’s real deep with me and her...It threw me for a minute.”
This person, who Push names as Cap, allegedly called up a number of Pusha-T’s old friends and collaborators searching for dirt on him. Push says he heard about this through a couple of people who reached out to him, before Joe Budden actually plays one of her messages during the interview. In the message, the woman is heard asking for information, but it’s unclear who she’s reaching out to.
“That’s a woman who, I’m at your baby shower with my wife, I’m inviting you to my wedding, and you would even attempt to dig up dirt...and this is who I call my sister, wholeheartedly,” Push says after the clip plays.
Pusha-T Calls Drake and Kanye West 'Fake Friends'
Budden, Rory, and Mal prod Pusha-T throughout the episode about Kanye seemingly playing both sides in the beef. While, Push does express frustration with Kanye apologizing to Drake for the beef, he chalks it up to Drake and Yeezy being “fake friends.”
“Now, the bromance that they have going back and forth,” he explains. “When he cool, and he shoot him in the verse or some shit. That’s them. I can’t be in the studio where Drake’s there. I can’t. I am not allowed.”
But ultimately Push doesn’t think Yeezy is like him. “Everybody not built like me. And everybody not built like me. And you can’t make people built like you," he says. “This is the music industry, this ain’t the streets. I don’t carry people like that.”
Further in the podcast, Pusha talks about Drake and Kanye's creative chemistry, despite having obvious issues with one another. He also makes a point that if Drake shared a photo of his son with Kanye, chances are that photo could've been shared with him to use as artwork for "The Story of Adidon."
“I wished [Kanye] would have sent me that. That's the type of ride I am,” he said. “If he sent him a picture, that's something that if you are in war during that, that shit should have came into my phone.”
Pusha-T Called Kanye West After His 'SNL' Performance
This isn’t the first time Pusha-T has shined a light on his political disagreements with Kanye, but in this interview Push discussing calling 'Ye out after his weird SNL performance.
“We disagree on this wholeheartedly. When it came to that, I actually called him after that. I just asked him, ‘You have your political views, I got mine. You know mine.’ He knows mine. Back and forth we’ve had this. What I asked him simply after SNL was, ‘What are you trying to accomplish?’” he says. “He was like, ‘Yo, what do you mean?’ To me, you’ve worn the hat. You said your stance. You’ve done that a little while ago.
In the past little month or so, after the music came out, during the music run and all of that, went to Chicago, I said, ‘Man, I sort of feel like people were not even agreeing with you, but lending you an ear.’ I said, ‘If that’s the case, why are we going back to causing an uprising? I feel like if whatever you’re trying to get accomplished, we disagree.’”
Despite their political differences, Push maintains his relationship Kanye and says he will continue to even if 'Ye campaigns for Donald Trump in the next election. “No, I definitely can have a relationship with 'Ye cause we have different political views. Hell yeah,” he explains. “Bro, we’ve been disagreeing with each other since we met. That’s why I feel like I am the president because I actually do disagree on everything. I feel like it’s a back and forth.”
Pusha-T Says He Owns 40 Percent of Arby's 'We Have the Meats' Commercials
If it wasn’t clear before this interview, it should be totally transparent now that Pusha-T wears many hats. He’s not only a solo artist and the president of G.O.O.D. Music, but he has a side hustle in syncs. He’s famous for creating the “I’m Lovin’ It” McDonald’s jingle with his brother, though he only got a one-time payout.
“Steve Stoute basically brought us the whole idea of doing the McDonald’s jingle,” he explains, referencing marketing executive and hip hop mogul Steve Stoute. “He gave us the ‘I’m Lovin It’ tagline, and we basically just wrote to that.”
Him and his brother received a one-time, $500,000 payment for a jingle that’s still used to this day. Push definitely feels like he got cheated out of that deal ("It wasn't hip."), but it’s all good because he now owns 40 percent of Arby’s “We Got the Meats” commercial slogan. “But I own 40 percent of the Arby’s commercial now,” he says.
“Wait ‘We Have the Meats’ is you?” Budden asks, completely shocked.
“Yeah we own that,” Push responds.
Let it be known that Pusha-T has the meats.
Pusha-T Is Finishing a New Album
We had to wait three years betweenDarkest Before DawnandDAYTONA, but it looks like we won’t have to wait too much longer for Pusha’s next album to drop. “That’s a fact. I’m finishing up my new album now. I’m off this shit now,” he says around the 1:19:00 mark.
He’s trying to get untitled project out before the end of this year, but it’ll definitely be here sometime early next year. Since King Push continues to proclaim his affinity for shorter releases, it’s likely we’re looking at another seven-track drop, maybe 10 at the max.
“I feel like I’m really good at what I do. I don’t know if there are a lot of people are good at luxury drug raps. I don’t feel like a lot of people are. But, being silent, they can sort of scoot you out. You can watch the game try to dismiss, and discredit you. And, ‘Oh, that’s just that.’ I feel like the more they come out, the more they have to compete with it. And differentiate between this and that. And as long as people keep differentiating, you’re there. I just feel like it gives me a one-up.”