21 Savage is living up to his name.
While promoting his chart-topping album with Drake, the rapper took aim at Nas, claiming the hip-hop legend is not relevant in today’s music scene. He made the controversial comment during a Twitter Spaces chat over the weekend.
“He’s not relevant,” 21 said in a clip that circulated on social media. “He just has a loyal ass fanbase. He just has a loyal fanbase and he still makes good ass music.”
The comment was enough to spark a debate on social media as fans weighed in, with many calling out Savage for questioning Nas’ relevancy.
Nas has not addressed 21’s remarks. On Friday, the Grammy-winning icon dropped his latest album King’s Disease III to critical acclaim.
Savage, who wasn’t even 2 years old when Nas released Illmatic, recently stirred more controversy when he said that he would “smoke” Kodak Black in a Verzuz battle.
“I’m smoking Kodak,” he said on Twitch before reciting his stats. “Before all this Drake sh*t, I been having hits. I been having diamond songs. I’m probably the only ni**a of this generation to go platinum with no features.”
21 is clearly feeling himself. His joint album with Drake, Her Loss, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 404,000 equivalent album units, the largest week for a hip-hop album this year.
UPDATE: 21 Savage has addressed the controversy. Taking to Twitter, he insisted that he was not disrespecting Nas.
“I would never disrespect nas or any legend who paved the way for me y’all be tryna take stuff and run with it,” he tweeted.