Speculation continues to grow in the wake of Drake’s Conductor Williams-produced “Fighting Irish” freestyle.
During a recent New Rory & Mal podcast conversation, Mal noted his estimate that the track itself is likely “a couple months old.” He elaborated further by noting that he considers the song's core intention to be Drake sending a message not only to LeBron James, as has been widely assumed among fans, but to multiple people close to him who seemingly picked a side during the peak of last year’s Kendrick Lamar back-and-forth.
“I’m sure people have been reaching out to him and backsliding and backtracking certain actions and reaching out to him,” Mal said. “I think this is probably his way of letting those people know, like, nah fam. You gotta stay over there. You picked a side. You gotta stay over there.”
From there, the hosts mentioned speculation surrounding footage of LeBron rapping to Kendrick’s “Man at the Garden” at a 40th birthday celebration, a development some have coupled with matters of Instagram. This led to Mal speculating that LeBron may have attempted to directly make contact with Drake amid presumed issues, though Drake’s response only came in the form of song.
“I believe that LeBron has probably reached out through some avenues or directly, however he can, to probably have a conversation with Drake,” Mal said. “This is probably Drake’s way of saying, like, fam, don’t try to hit my line. This is what it is. This is where I’m at.”
Zooming out a bit, Mal pointed to expectations of a “certain level of loyalty,” digging into how those expectations may have shaped Drake’s actions in recent months.
“If you’re my friend and somebody is alluding that I’m this fucking disgusting person, you can’t be at the show dancing with them, rapping along to the lyrics,” he said.
The Drake freestyle in question, which was briefly made available via Conductor himself before quickly being pulled last week, sees the 6 god taking issue with a world he argues has fallen “in love with the gimmicks.” But for Drake and his team, per the song, “this shit is personal to us” and is not “just business.”
Drake and PND are expected to be releasing a joint album together soon. Kendrick, meanwhile, will be taking the stage at the Super Bowl in New Orleans next month.
