Before their 2018 matchup, things were already rocky between the two rap juggernauts. Drake, who once revered The Clipse and even worked with Malice during the early beginnings of his career, would eventually endure a tireless battle with Pusha T dating back to 2011. Both parties continue to trade petty shots, with the most significant one landing in 2018, courtesy of Pusha T. (Billboard)
Pusha has feuded with Lil Wayne since 2002, but the first public diss came on the track “Mr. Me Too.” At the time, Pusha was still performing with Clipse, a group composed of himself and his brother No Malice. (Independent)
"You talking to the best. Talk to me like you’re talking to the best. I don’t see no fuckin’ Clipse. Come on man. " - Lil Wayne, Complex
How does Lil Wayne and Pusha T fighting over who wore BAPE first relate to Drake? That Wayne beef was, ultimately, a little deeper than a fight over a clothing brand, the pair sparring with each other over the years on various tracks. So, when Drake joined Wayne’s label Young Money Entertainment the rapper became fair game for Pusha, who first went after Drake on the track “Don’t Fuck with Me,” a song that samples Drake’s own “Dreams Money Can Buy” (which itself samples Jai Paul). (Independent)
To clear up any confusion over who the lines were directed at, Pusha released the track “Exodus 23:1,” taking aim at Drake’s difficult contract with Young Money Entertainment, itself an imprint of Cash Money Records. (Independent)
And then came “H.G.T.V”, featuring the hardest hitting verses from Pusha at that time. Referencing Drake’s first album, So Far Gone, and questioning his reported use of ghostwriters – a topic that has been widely mentioned by those who take issue with Drake. (Independent)
In 2017, Drake and Pusha's beef heated up some more. When Drizzy unleashed his "playlist" More Life, Drake called out Pusha on "Two Birds, One Stone" and claimed the rapper is living a false life. (Billboard)
Tensions began to rise between Pusha and Drake after Pusha unleashed his new album Daytona, which was produced entirely by Kanye West. On the album's closing track, "Infrared," Pusha continued to question Drake's lyrical abilities. (Billboard)
When it was Drake's time to fire his own shots, Drake reminded Pusha that Kanye once called the "God's Plan" rapper to help write "Father Stretch My Hands" and "30 Hours" from West's The Life of Pablo album. Drizzy even hinted that he may have worked on Kanye's upcoming album as well. (Billboard)
Without hesitation, Drake posted a draft of an invoice requesting $100,000 from the G.O.O.D. Music team for "promotional assistance and career reviving" and tagged Pusha in the post on Instagram. (Billboard)
Pusha-T responded to the line on Twitter, urging Drake to “Send the invoice for the extra 20…”
Things went nuclear on May 29 when Push dropped “The Story of Adidon.” The single’s artwork depicts Drake in blackface, allegedly an unaltered photo from 2008 taken by David Leyes for a “Jim Crow Couture” clothing campaign for a brand called Too Black Guys. The song employs No I.D.’s beat for JAY-Z’s “The Story of O.J.” a video that featured minstrelsy imagery similar to the photo released with “The Story of Adidon.” The artwork has since been removed from Instagram. (High Snobiety)
Drake paid a visit to LeBron James' HBO show The Shop to discuss his tiff with Kanye West and Pusha T. During the open forum, Drizzy broke down the rules to battle rap and why certain things should be kept off-limits. "I knew something was gonna come up about my kid. They had to add the deadbeat dad thing to make it more appealing," Drake said when speaking on Pusha T's scathing "The Story of Adidon" diss. (Billboard)
Shortly after Drake's appearance on The Shop, Pusha T paid a visit to The Joe Budden Podcast, where he refuted the claims made by the OVO captain. Though Drake blamed Kanye for leaking information out about his son, Pusha revealed that the true culprit behind the fiasco was Drake's friend and producer, Noah "40" Shebib. (Billboard)
Since the release of “The Story of Adidon,” Drake has remained quiet. That’s likely at the request of music mogul J. Prince. The CEO of Houston-based Rap-A-Lot Records (who is often considered a mentor to Drake after introducing the rapper to Cash Money Records) spoke recently about his role in preventing Drake from retaliating. (High Snobiety)